Still Moving, Monarca Films Board San Sebastian Forum title ‘Remanso’

France’s Still Moving and Uruguay’s Monarca Films have joined Pablo Lamar’s Paraguayan socio-political drama project “Remanso” as co-producers. The film will feature at the upcoming San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum.  

Produced by Gabriela Sabaté (“Paraguayan Hammock”) at Asunción-based Sabaté Films and Pablo Lamar at Sapukai Cine, the project’s broad co-production alliance also includes San Telmo Filmes in Brazil and Tarea Fina in Argentina.

Lamar won the Special Jury Award in the Tiger Competition at the 2016 Rotterdam Film Festival edition for his debut, “La última tierra.”

Written by Sara Pinheiro and based on real-life events, “Remanso” takes place in Paraguay in the ’70s, during one of the most violent periods of Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship (1954–1989).

It follows Carmen, a woman who, upon moving to a new neighborhood, discovers the body of a dead girl in the nearby house of a colonel. Her friends and loved ones insist she stay silent, but she struggles to reclaim her inner peace.

“In ‘Remanso,’ we address the silencing of people – mostly women – through different means. Sometimes indirect and subtle, and sometimes through brutally violent situations – at the national level, at work, in the neighborhood, within a family, inside a marriage,” said director-producer Lamar.

He added: “This was a particularly effective mechanism of operating and sustaining itself used by the dictatorship of Stroessner. However, this is still a dramatic part of our present society.”

“With this film, I’m interested in exploring how these socio-political topics affect a character’s daily and family life. Thus, Carmen, the main character, becomes aware of her surroundings, and goes from living a peaceful fiction to enduring a scary reality,” he continued.
 
Planned for a 2026 roll, “Remanso” has received development incentives from Hubert Bals fund, was backed by BRLab, Proyecta Ventana Sur, Cinemart, Paraguay’s Fondo Nacional de la Cultura y las artes (FONDEC), and earned production support from the Instituto Nacional del Audiovisual del Paraguay (INAP).

Founded by Juliette Lepoutre and Pierre Menahem, Paris-based Still Moving aims to produce arthouse films by emerging or established directors. Recent titles include “Tiger Stripes,” Grand Prix at 2023 Cannes Critics Week; “Rule34,” Pardo d’Oro Locarno 2022; and “Mediterranean Fever,” best script at 2022 Cannes Un Certain Regard.

Led by Eugenia Olascuaga and Valentina Baracco, Monarca Films has produced the documentary “Para no olvidar,” a Swiss-Uruguayan-French co-production that premiered at Visions du Reel in 2023, and “Delia,” winner of the Biznaga de Plata for best director (María Victoria Peña Echeverría) at the 2022 Malaga Film Festival edition.

The upcoming Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, taking place Sept. 23-25 in the framework of the San Sebastian Festival, will be the first public pitching of the “Remanso’s” by its co-producers.