“Building a story up from the local level, with all the challenges faced by our protagonists. The challenge of working with non-professional actors while shooting in a unique environment.” With these words, Guillermo Galoe – formerly known as Guillermo García López – presented his project Sleepless City during the most recent edition of Abycine Lanza, whose WIP section he was competing in. Now, his film has been completed, and it will be world-premiered in the Critics’ Week at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.

Galoe’s second feature (and his first fictional one), which was co-penned by Víctor Alonso Berbel, tells of how Toni, a boy who lives in Cañada Real (an illegal shanty town in the Spanish capital), sees his world fall apart when his household receives an imminent eviction notice and he finds out that his best friend, Said, is leaving the neighbourhood for good. In between his dreams about the future, Toni increasingly distances himself from his family and his roots. The lead actors are Antonio Fernández Gabarre, Bilal Sedraoui, Jesús Fernández Silva and Luis Bertolo.

“I still can’t believe that, after six years of working on this film, we’ve finished it and it’s beginning its journey in the unique place that is Cannes,” the filmmaker posted on his social networks. “I’m deeply grateful – first and foremost, to the community of Cañada Real, a place that radiates light despite the fact that families there are still living in darkness, with no electricity, and have been for the last five years. And especially to the actors and actresses in the film who live there and who are absolute natural-born stars, and to the whole cast: you are my heroes!”

Galoe won the Goya Award for Best Documentary in 2016 with Delicate Balance [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] after it was premiered at IDFA and picked up the Doc España Award at the Seminci. After that, he once again snagged a Goya Award with his short film Even Though It’s Night (2023), which was also shot in Cañada Real, after premiering it in the Cannes competition. He also helmed the shorts Seagulls Cut Through the Sky (together with Portugal’s Mariana Bártolo) and Lo-Tech Reality, both in 2023, in addition to the documentary miniseries Atlánticas, which he made in 2018 alongside Pedro González Kühn.

Sleepless City, which at the project stage was presented at Cinemed Meetings in 2022 (see the interview with French producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint), was developed further at the Spanish Film Academy Residencies, the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence (where it scooped the Moulin d’Andé Award in 2020), the Berlinale Script Station, the Berlinale Talent Project Market, TorinoFilmLab, Ventana CineMad (winning the Award for Best Fiction Project) and CREA Conecta+ (Award for Best Project in 2019). It also benefited from the Community of Madrid’s feature development support.

Sleepless City is a Spanish-French production staged by Marina García López for Sintagma Films, Marisa Fernández Armenteros for Buenapinta Media, Manuel Calvo for Encanta Films, Álex Lafuente for Bteam Prods, Damien Megherbi and Justin Pechberty for Les Valseurs, and Anne-Dominique Toussaint for Les Films des Tournelles. Its international sales are overseen by Best Friend Forever, and its Spanish distribution has been entrusted to Bteam Pictures.