Buenos Aires-based sales agency Meikincine Entertainment has closed a deal with Amazon Prime Video for the U.S. and Latin American rights to this year’s Argentine Oscar submission “The Sleepwalkers,” which will debut on the platform March 31.
“The Sleepwalkers” is the fourth feature from Argentine auteur Paula Hernández, who pulls double duty as the film’s screenwriter, and was produced by Tarea Fina in Argentina and Oriental Films in Uruguay. A hit at its Toronto Film Festival Platform competition world premiere, the film did the rounds in 2019-20, despite COVID setbacks, playing in competition at the San Sebastián, Miami and Havana festivals, to name a few.
Turning on discontented mother Luisa, played by three-time Argentine Academy Award-winning actress Erica Rivas (“Wild Tales”), and her sullen teenage daughter Ana, “The Sleepwalkers” unspools over a New Year’s holiday as the pair are forced into a crowded few days spent with three generations of the father’s extended family. The mother-daughter relationship is stressed after the unexpected arrival of a flirtatious distant cousin quickly consumes nearly all the young girl’s attention while the expectations of Luisa’s in-laws further isolate her, this time from her husband.
“’The Sleepwalkers’ isn’t the nightmare from which one cannot wake up, but is rather the nightmare of waking up,” Hernández said ahead of the film’s Toronto premiere.
