the movie Bunkerdirected by Florian Zeller y starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, will compete in the Official Selection of the 83rd Venice Film Festival, as announced today by the organizers of the contest, which will start on September 2.
Bunker It represents a new cinematographic collaboration between Cruz and Bardem, considered one of the most recognized couples in Spanish cinema. The last time the two worked together was in everyone knows it (2018), film directed by Asghar Farhadi and set in a town in Toledo. On this occasion, the couple once again coincide in a project with international projection, written especially for them by Zeller, winner of the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for The fatherthe film starring Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins about Alzheimer’s.
The film’s plot centers on an architect who accepts a commission to build a survival bunker for a tech billionaire. From that decision, the architect’s wife begins to question their marriage after seventeen years of living together. As Zeller stated during filming, he chose Cruz and Bardem because he sought to capture on screen the emotional complexity of a real and recognized couple, and he considered that both performers were “two of the most talented actors today.” “It has been an intense, honest and beautiful experience. I really love them, I admire them (Bardem and Cruz) a lot. They have been fearless, we explored intimate territories, emotional territories, and they have been very brave in doing it as a couple, because it is not that easy. It has been one of the most joyful, intense and emotionally gratifying experiences of my life. They are both extraordinary actors, without a doubt, but they are also beautiful people,” the author told EL PAÍS.
The distribution of Bunker It is completed by figures such as Stephen Graham, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Paul Dano, Mark Gatiss and Eileen Atkins. The production has taken place between Spain and the United Kingdom, with several weeks of filming in studios and emblematic locations in Madrid and London.
The 83rd edition of the Mostra will take place between September 2 and 12 on the Venetian island of Lido and, throughout it, two honorary Golden Lions will be awarded: to the actor George Clooney and the actress Ellen Burstyn. The international jury that will decide the winners, which will be announced on September 12, will be chaired by the American actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal. The latest films by the American director Cassey Affleck, the Japanese Hirokazu Koreeda, the British Martin McDonagh, the German Werner Herzog and the Italian Nanni Moretti will also compete for the Golden Lion.
Also notable within the Official Selection is the new work by Martin McDonagh, Wild Horse nine, with John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Parker Posey and the Chilean Mariana di Girolamo in a story about a mission of a CIA agent during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. While the American Cassey Affleck will bring his fourth feature film as a director to the Lido, Company, starring Nick Nolte. His compatriot Lance Oppenheim will debut Primetime, con Robert Pattinson.
Out of competition, Mexican Gael García Bernal will premiere his third work as a director, the comedy Man overboard And the Argentine Mariano Llinás will wear his Biography of Jorge Luis Borges. It can also be seen Joy to livea seven-hour documentary about Bernardo Bertolucci, shot by Luca Guadagnino, or the short film The are hereLaura Poitras’ raid on the Minneapolis raided by ICE customs agents. Also Father Joe, with Al Pacino and Kiefer Sutherland; What LoveBuilds, by Russell Crowe, an autobiographical musical film about his career as an actor and musician, or Musk, by Alex Gibney, about the controversial businessman who owns Tesla.