SDI are delighted to announce that Chico Pereira’s new feature film Donkeyote, co-produced by SDI co-director Sonja Henrici and Ingmar Trost of Sutor Kolonko, will be one of eight films competing for the VPRO Big Screen Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Donkeyote will receive its World Premiere on Saturday 28th of January at 8pm at the Pathé 7.
The film is hotly-awaited following the success of Pablo’s Winter, Chico’s first feature length work, produced by SDI. Pablo’s Winter was nominated for and won numerous awards at film festivals including DOK Leipzig, IDFA and Full Fame. The film also opened the 2013 MoMA Documentary Fortnight in NYC.
Chico is very much SDI alumni, ever since he showed us life on a trawler through the work of Filipino fisherman in the North East of Scotland in his 2012 SDI Bridging the Gap film Polaris.
Donkeyote is the story of Manuel Molera Aparicio and his ten year old Andalusian donkey, Gorrión, whose name means sparrow. Against the advice of his doctor, 76 year old Manuel decides to plan one last walk by re-tracing the Trail of Tears, a brutal forced 2200 mile march by the Native American Cherokee Nation. His walking companions are Gorrión and his beloved dog, Zafrana. But how do you overcome the small obstacle of shipping a donkey, Manolo’s chronic arthritis, a history of heart attacks, and Gorrión’s fear of water? In Donkeyote Manolo’s wondrous friendship with his animals finds a beautiful equilibrium, man and beasts intrepidly braving the harsh landscapes together. Will they find the American West? More importantly, will they be able to see life as it is, and not as it should be?
Chico told us a bit about the film and why the story is so close to his heart :-
“Manolo has alway been an inspiration to me.” He is my uncle, and my godfather. When I was a child, he used to take me and other nephews to the countryside for “adventures”, which basically consisted of the sight of wild animals, fantastic stories about the countryside, or mysterious trips into the unknown. Thinking back, they were ordinary moments that he would turn into fantasy for us. All of us were fascinated about this character and sometimes we would wait at eight in the morning outside our houses to see Manolo passing by, begging him to take us with him.”
SDI are excited that Donkeyote has started its journey which we hope to be a long and fulfilling adventure.
SCREENING INFORMATION
World Premiere
28 January 2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam
All Screenings:
27 Jan 2017 12:00 Press & Industry (Cinerama 3)
28 Jan 2017 20:00 World Premiere (Pathe 7)
29 Jan 2017 10:00 Public (LantarenVenster 3)
30 Jan 2017 11:00 Press & Industry (Cinerama 3)
2 Feb 2017 15:45 Public (Pathe 4)
4 Feb 2017 19:15 Public (Cinerama 6)
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