Films Distribution adopts 'Salamandra'

Film screens in Directors' Fortnight

By JOHN HOPEWELL

CANNES — Paris-based production and sales company Films Distribution has pounced on one of the few titles in a major section at Cannes still to tie down a sales agent: Pablo Aguero’s Directors’ Fortnight drama “Salamandra.”

Turning on a broken family, like several other players in this year’s Fortnight, “Salamandra” features a mother’s struggle to bring up her son in the dark feature debut by the young Argentine helmer.

Pic, which develops Aguero’s prize-winning short “Primera nieve,” is set in El Bolson, a wild valley in Patagonia inhabited by hippies and peasants, which has seemingly turned its back on civilization.

Though “Salamandra”’ is Aguero’s first feature, the filmmaker has enjoyed an illustrious short-film career with prestigious festival wins. “Lejos del sol” won best short at the 2005 Buenos Aires Bafici Film Festival; “Primera nieve” took a jury prize at Cannes and best short at Gijon in 2006.