Un poco de chocolate hits Spanish screens
The dazzling and optimistic comedy drama Un poco de chocolate, the debut feature by the young Basque director Aitzol Aramaio, is being released on Spanish screens. The film closed the latest Malaga Spanish Film Festival.
Despite their different titles, Un poco de chocolate is adapted from Unai Elorriaga’s novel A Tram in Sp (2001). Published in several European countries (including Germany and Italy) and in the US, the book was a popular and critical success, winning the Spanish National Literature Award.
Un poco de chocolate was co-written by the director and experienced screenwriter Michel Gatzambide. The book’s success will no doubt boost the box office performance of the film, which received a warm reception at the Malaga Film Festival and at its avant-premiere screening in the Basque country, where it was shot.
The story centres on four characters, an ageing brother and sister and a young couple, all of them lonely and filled with uncertainty. Their paths cross when Lucas, on leaving hospital arm-in-arm with his sister María, discovers with surprise that a squatter, Marcos, has moved into his house, along with Roma.
A relationship gradually forms between the four characters, but then their lives take different paths.
The cast is one of the film’s strong points and includes German actor Daniel Brühl (who gives a performance in perfect Spanish), Argentinean actor Héctor Alterio, Julieta Serrano and Barbara Goenaga.
Un poco de chocolate – which was produced by Tusitala, Egutera and Mundo Ficción – was made on a budget of €1.9m.
The film is being released domestically by Aurum on 50 screens.
(Translated from Spanish)
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