Guadalajara unveils 'Princesses,' 'Talented'

MADRID -- Laura Astorga's "Red Princesses" and Che Sandoval's "You Think You're the Most Talented" unspool at Guadalajara Construye, one of Latin America's key sneak-peeks at pics from up-and-coming helmers. An industry highlight at Mexico's Guadalajara Fest, its biggest movie confab, GC showcases films in post-production. It runs March 6-7. A '80s-set intimist drama with political undertones, "Princesses" turns on an impressionable 9-year-old girl whose parents, both Sandinista intelligence operatives, are dispatched to Costa Rica. First seen at GC as a work in progress, it proved a standout at Berlin's 2010 Talent Project Market. "Talented" won Works in Progress at Chile's FicVina in December, earning a GC berth. A garrulous trawl through Santiago night life, plumbing the miseries of machismo, "Talented" follows an office worker's search for sex after his wife walks out on him. From Buenos Aires' Carrousel Films, which produced Natalia Smirnoff's Berlin 2010 Competition player "Puzzle," "From Tuesday to Tuesday," another GC competitor, proffers a jaundiced take on soul-sapping materialism. It played Ventana Sur's Primer Corte last December. Like "Princesses," Venezuelan Patricia Ortega's "The Return" explores one of Latin American cinema's grand themes: Macro events' insidious impact on innocent lives, here seen in a Wayuu native massacre, which prompts two young girls' across-the-tracks friendship. "Daggers in the Sky," Peruvian vet Alberto Durant's mother-daughter reconciliation drama, and Brazilian village docu-fiction "Breath," by Marcos Pimentel, round up GC. Titles vie for nine prizes, usually services from Mexican companies, such as Churubusco Studios' data transfer to a 35mm print. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com