Buena Vista International, the Walt Disney Company’s international distribution arm, has acquired theatrical and all-media rights for Latin America to Mare Nostrum, the next film from the Argentinian directors Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, Variety reported on Wednesday 11 November. Antonio Banderas stars. HanWay Films is selling the film at the American Film Market (AFM); no price was disclosed.
It is the first territory announced for the film, which HanWay brought to the market a week after Deadline revealed the project on 5 November. Shooting is due to start in March 2027 in Bilbao, Spain.
Key facts
- Film: Mare Nostrum, written and directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, starring Antonio Banderas
- Buyer: Buena Vista International, theatrical and all media, Latin America; seller: HanWay Films (world sales)
- Terms: price not disclosed; first territory announced
- Production: principal photography scheduled for March 2027 in Bilbao; producer Jose Luis Escolar
- Previous collaboration: Banderas starred in the pair’s Official Competition (2021)
The film
Banderas plays the captain, named Álvaro Salcedo in Deadline’s report, of a giant container ship carrying a billion-euro cargo from Istanbul to Cape Town. In a storm he rescues a dinghy of refugees without clearing it with anyone, and the decision becomes an international political crisis when no European country will let the ship dock. HanWay’s synopsis, quoted by Variety, lists the Spanish prime minister, activists, coastguards, a rock star, a corporate lawyer, marine insurance brokers and a band of African refugees among the people he has to deal with.
In a statement quoted by Deadline, Cohn and Duprat said the film explores a world shaped by migration and borders, and called it their biggest and most ambitious film so far, mixing tension, drama and what they described as uncomfortable humour.
The team
Escolar (Kill Jackie) produces. The Goya-winning cinematographer Xavi Giménez (The Machinist) shoots, and the visual-effects supervisor Arturo López Iriarte is using 3D scanning to stage the story aboard one of the world’s largest container ships, Variety says. Alain Bainée, the production designer on Official Competition and Society of the Snow, rejoins the directors. Executive producers include Cohn, Duprat, Banderas, Alejandro Roemmers, Manu Fabeiro, Manuel Martí, Gonzalo Fried and Carolina Krasñansky.
What is not known
The reports give no budget and no release window, and no deals for Spain, Argentina or English-language territories have been announced. HanWay had not posted the sale on its own site by 21:00 CET on 11 November.
Our reading
A studio distribution arm committing to an auteur film four months before it shoots says more about Latin America than about Disney. Cohn and Duprat are Argentinian, their last film with Banderas competed at Venice, and the new one is led by a Spanish-speaking star the region knows well, so Buena Vista is buying a title with a ready-made audience rather than a script it has to explain.
The more revealing sale will be Spain, where the film shoots and whose prime minister appears in the synopsis. A Spanish deal, and whether it comes from a studio or an independent, will show how comfortable buyers are with a film that looks for uncomfortable humour in Europe’s closed ports.
For more on the region’s market this month, see our reports on Secuoya’s Bogotá Content City studio, Godzilla Minus Zero topping Mexico and Brazil’s R$12 week for local films.