Over the last decade, Felipe Solari Yrigoyen has worked as an assistant director to some of the most lauded filmmakers in South America. His credits include Rodrigo Moreno’s “The Delinquents,” Martín Rejtman’s “The Practice” and Santiago Mitre’s upcoming “Villaflor.” After learning from the best, Solari Yrigoyen is finally claiming the director’s chair for himself with “The Amateurs.”
The project, which is being presented at Venice’s Gap-Financing Market, asks a burning question: What are the Joker, Marilyn Monroe and Freddy Krueger doing in a run-down hotel in Patagonia? It turns out, the characters are in town for an eccentric film convention, where a prized original Maltese Falcon statuette goes missing alongside a mysterious Russian guest. Following the heist, an unlikely group of amateurs is left to solve the puzzle.
Speaking with Variety ahead of traveling to Venice, and then San Sebastián for the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, Solari Yrigoyen says the project first arose from his desire to “write a crime comedy.” “I had this idea of a guy who meets a girl, is very interested in her, and the girl disappears. He doesn’t know anything about her, and he has to solve the case of who the girl is as the story becomes intertwined with a complex plot.”
“As I worked on rewrites, I kept thinking about the idea of setting the story in a very unique film convention, and I felt this would be quite an apt universe for a comedy,” he adds. “I felt this environment of a Comic-Con was very cinematic, just having this place filled with people who are very passionate about something. This film convention is a new event; it’s invented for the film, it’s something new they are trying in South America.”
The young filmmaker says he is “not a big Comic-Con guy,” but he “loves that it exists.” I’ve been to and worked at festivals, so seeing the two coming together creates something I think is believable and familiar.” Rights-wise, as all characters will be clearly in costume, there are no copyright issues at play.
Solari Yrigoyen has already finished the script, which he penned himself. He is headed to the European markets to secure the financing for the film, which is being produced by leading Latin American company Quijote Films, under the guise of veteran producer Giancarlo Nasi (“The Blue Trail,” “The Settlers,” “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo”). The Chilean producer is eyeing shooting the film in his home country, with funds already secured from the Chilean Fund, as well as a grant from the Argentinian fund for first-time filmmakers.
Courtesy of Quijote Films
“I’ve shot in Chile before and had a very good experience, so I am really looking forward to possibly shooting there again,” says the director of the prospect of moving production to the neighboring country. South American co-productions have become increasingly common in Argentina under the tight fist of Javier Milei. One of the president’s first acts in power was to defund the country’s film-TV institute INCAA, and film-focused funds have been drastically reduced under his stewardship.
“It’s a tough time for Argentina and for Argentinian cinema,” says Solari Yrigoyen. “It’s very sad. But we’ve got to fight through it. It’s important to let people know that Argentinian cinema is very valuable and we should keep making as many films as possible. We also have to try to reverse this very bad moment for Argentinian cinema, and this is one of the reasons we are expanding our frontiers with this film, because producing a film exclusively in Argentina right now is very hard.”
So why make the big step into directing at a time like this? “It feels like the right time to move forward with a project of my own,” he says. “I feel that there are a few things that I could get away with that would usually cost more money thanks to my experience working as an AD. There are key parts of working as an assistant director which will help with an ambitious film like this one.”
“I really like working as an assistant director,” notes Solari Yrigoyen. “I find it really inspiring and very riveting, but I also always wanted to write and direct. That was my idea coming into the film world. I’ve learned a lot from Martín Rejtman, Rodrigo Moreno and Alejandro Fadel. I’ve had some very interesting and complex shoots, and from which I take a little inspiration.”
“I usually become very close to the directors I work with, so we establish creative conversations which are really inspiring,” he goes on. “It’s not just the organizing part of being an assistant director. Now, after all these years of working as an assistant director, having just finished working as an assistant director in a very big film (Mitre’s ‘Villaflor’), I feel like I am ready.”
“The Amateurs” is produced by Quijote Films, in co-production with Gentil Cine.
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