Following its world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, director Sébastien Laudenbach has completed a Spanish-language version of “Viva Carmen.” He’s also behind “The Girl Without Hands” and co-director of “Chicken for Linda!”
Flamenco singer Silvia Pérez Cruz is voicing the title character and performing new songs written for the Spanish edition. Pérez Cruz recently featured alongside Rosalía on “La Rumba del Perdón” from groundbreaking album “Lux.”
You can find the exclusive new song here:
The Seville-set animation has its North American premiere in TIFF’s Centerpiece section on Friday Sept. 11. U.S. distribution rights are currently in negotiation.
Filmin and Elástica Films will release the film in Spain, and it will premiere locally at Seville Film Festival.
Based on the world’s most popular and frequently performed opera, Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,” the film is its feminist reimagining.
“I wanted to show a woman, not just an icon. She’s real, even though it’s an animated movie. Her priority isn’t love; it’s freedom. She’s willing to pay the ultimate price for it. That’s very clear in her mind,” Laudenbach told Variety in Cannes.
Set in 1845, it explores Seville: a bustling port town of sailors and small-time crooks. Teenage Salvador, assistant to the gifted knife grinder Antonio, meets the captivating Carmen, whose beauty and independent spirit set the town abuzz.
Antonio’s mystical gift for reading the future in sharpened blades foretells a tragic fate for Carmen at the hands of a soldier, José. With unwavering resolve, Salvador rallies an eclectic band of misfit street kids, led by the spirited Belén, to defy fate and protect Carmen.
“Disney wouldn’t make something like ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ today. Times have changed. But this is a film for everyone. It’s very important to speak to kids in a certain way, we did that also in ‘Chicken for Linda!’ [co-directed with Chiara Malta]. As filmmakers, it is our responsibility to communicate with a young audience: they are the audience of tomorrow,” added the director.
The French-language version of “Viva Carmen,” starring Camélia Jordana, will be released in France by Haut et Court.
Additional voice cast includes Milo Machado-Graner, Soumaye Bocoum, Carl Malapa, Gaëtan Dupont, Évan Paturel, Paul Minthe, Olga Milshtein, Nadège Beausson-Diagne, Maxime Bailleul, Félix Kysyl, Benjamin Cannone, Gaëtan Peau and Suzanne Levy-Aris.
A Folivari production in association with Haut et Court Distribution and Global Constellation, “Viva Carmen” is based on an original idea by Pierre-Henri Léon and Sébastien Laudenbach.
