Rome-based 102 Distribution is placing two of its key upcoming catalog titles on the open market at this year’s Ventana Sur market and festival: Argentine Soccer doc “Xeneizes – Boca: the Origins” and Mexican coming-of-age drama “Oliver and the Pool.”
L.A.’s 1844 Entertainment will handle U.S. distribution on both titles.
Documenting one of the best-know sociological phenomena from the world of top-tier soccer: “Xeneizes” pulls at the threads on the edge of the tapestry that is the fanatical Boca Juniors fanbase. Set in Buenos Aires’ barrio La Boca, founded in the mid-1800s by Genoese immigrants, the doc unspools in the shadow of one of world soccer’s most famous stadiums, La Bombonera, and examines how a soccer club has, over the years, has come to be a symbol of Genoa in Argentina.
Boca’s ultras – an organized group of superfans – are seen as a trans-Atlantic and trans-temporal link to those immigrants who came to South America 150 years ago. In addition to archive footage, historical accounts dating back to the group’s founding, and interviews current with members of the Boca ultras, the film also features testimonies of some of the club’s legends including Diego Alberto Milito and Nicolás Burdisso.
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Michele Rovini directed the feature, produced by Italy’s 39 Films and ItacaFilm.
Mexican coming-of-age drama “Oliver and the Pool” is directed by Arcadi Palerm, who co-wrote with Gibrán Portela, and produced by Milko Luis at Ki Visual. Mixing elements of comedy and drama, the film is all about a teenage boy’s resilience after losing his father.
As the summer unwinds, Oliver plants himself poolside in a chaise lounge, with an urn of his old man’s ashes nearby, refusing to move as he struggles to understand the futility of life as understood by a 13-year-old boy who just lost his patriarch. From that spot Oliver slowly learns to forgive the dead man’s shortcomings and the ways he wronged not only Oliver, but many others, while the boy also slowly recovers his spark, perhaps igniting a young romance.
Other 102 Distribution titles available to buyers at Ventana Sur include Argentine doc “Madre Planta” and Berlinale Generation Kplus Crystal Bear – Special Mention and International Jury Special Mention winner “A School in Cerro Hueso.”