Spain’s Latido Films has clinched world sales rights to serial killer drama-thriller “Sacamantecas,” the third feature by writer-director David Pérez Sañudo, whose Latido-repped debut feature, “Ane,” swept three Spanish Academy Goya Awards in 2021.
Latido is already handling Pérez Sañudo’s second feature, “Los últimos románticos,” which it announced at the Berlin Film Festival as the first title in a two-picture deal with Sañudo. The deals come as Spanish sales companies battle to retain top-flight talent, increasingly in the crosshairs of international counterparts.
”Sacamantecas,” on which Latido Films has just clinched a pre-sale deal for Italy with Movies Inspired, marks the second title in that deal. Distribution in Spain will close shortly, said Latido Films’ Oscar Alonso.
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Produced by Olmo Figueredo, who’s also backing “Los últimos románticos,” “Sacamantecas” turns on Spain’s first recorded serial killer, Juan Díaz de Garayo.
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In two killing sprees over 1872-79, the ageing and illiterate farm laborer raped and murdered six women in Vitoria in Spain’s Basque country. The murders coincided with Spain’s bloody Third Carlist War. “Sacamantecas” looks set to explore not only has figure but also context.
“It was a time when the idea of a nation and concept modernity was born. Much of modern day Spain can be understood from what happened in the last third of the nineteenth century,” Pérez Sañudo has said.
“‘Sacamantecas’ is a drama with thriller elements. It portrays a serial killer amidst the bloodiest civil war in Spain’s history. The film also serves as a mosaic of the 19th century, a period marked by significant social, political, and economic turmoil,” Figueredo told Variety.
“Once more, Latido is betting on one of Spain’s great emerging talents. After having picked up ‘God Save Us,’ from a then almost unknown Rodrigo Sorogoyen and handling three of his films, it’s logical to bet on David Pérez Sañudo’s next two films having represented his first,” said Latido Films’ Antonio Saura.
Figueredo’s La Claqueta (“The Endless Trench”) produces in Spain with Pérez Sañudo’s Vitoria-based Amania Films (“Ane”). Producers in Belgium are Robin Kerremans at Caviar and David Ragonig, at its production house Beluga Tree Productions, which co-produced Agnieska Holland’s “Green Border.”