Abner Benaim, Director of Oscar Shortlisted ‘Plaza Catedral,’ Sets Next: ‘The Simple Life,’ a ‘Tropical Existential Road Movie’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Panama’s Abner Benaim, writer-director of Oscar shortlisted “Plaza Catedral,” and one of Central America’s most prominent filmmakers, has set its follow-up, “The Simple Life” (“La vida simple”), which will make its market debut at the 2024 Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (MAFF) this March, one of the key co-production forums for Spanish-language art films.
Set up at Benaim’s Panama City label, Apertura Films, “The Simple Life” (“La Vida Simple”) and co-produced by Montevideo-based U Films (“9’,” “Ausencia de mí,” “Mala madre,” headed by Virginia Hinze and Lucía Gaviglio. Panamanian singer, musician and composer Ruben Blades, whom Benaim portrayed in “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name,” serves as an executive producer on “The Simple Life.”
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“The Simple Life” will mark a departure for Benaim, breaking with four comedy-laced social-issue movies which focus on the social gulf in Panama (“Chance,” 2009) or endemic juvenile violence (“Plaza Catedral,” 2021) among narrative features, or a Latin American icon, “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name” (2018) and Panama’s 1989 U.S. invasion (“Invasion,” 2015) among doc features or hybrids.
“Ruben Blades” “will definitely be related to the history of Latin America in the past 50 years,” Benaim told Variety while in prep.
In contrast, “The Simple Life,” is more related to the reality of Benaim himself. In it, a film director – envisaged as a Panamanian filmmaker living in Spain for a long time – is stripped of both camera and crew, finding himself in Panama and compelled by unforeseen circumstances to live the very movie he had longed to capture on film.
“The central theme of this film is the inability to confront the idea of one’s own death, and the paralyzing effect that can have on living one’s life. I suffered from panic attacks for many years, and I believe it is important to discuss this topic and share my experience through this story, without taboo. People often feel they are the only ones suffering, Cinema can change that,” Benaim told Variety.
The film will key into a post-pandemic zeitgeist, however, which is looking for lighter and finally more feel good fare.
“I feel that the key to ‘La Vida Simple’ in addressing these ‘difficult’ topics lies in the lighthearted tone of the film: ‘a tropical existential road movie,’” he added.
“When I sat down to write, humor seeped in, as it often does. When situations are hard to deal with, the absurd enters,” Benaim added: “It’s a drama that allows humor and romance, and shares a message of optimism towards life; that although the fear of the unknown is natural, it is also an opportunity to live fully and find meaning in every step we take. All this happens in the wild, exuberant countryside of Panama, making the film itself an ode to Panama and its beautiful people and nature,” he added.
Benaim signalled to Variety that his screenplay is ready to shoot though he noted that he liked working with the actors and adjusting up until the last minute, and “especially in this case when it’s a road movie where I want to allow the circumstances, places and people we meet on the road to influence the shooting.”
Scheduled to shoot in January 2025, “A Simple Life” is envisaged as an international co-production, said executive produced Malu Zayon, at Apertura Films. Apertura is in conversations with potential Spanish co-producers.
“After Benaim’s success with ‘Plaza Catedral,’ shortlisted for the Oscars, he now delves into more personal terrain – ‘The Simple Life’ is like a Latin American ‘Sideways,’” said Zayon.
“It’s an exciting project: a road trip always brings surprises, and the wild, exuberant nature of the countryside of Panama, with its incredible people coupled with the actors we have in mind, are sure to bring special moments to the film. We want to capture that magic that one feels when we go on a trip, lower the window, let the breeze in, take in the sunlight and feel good about life, even if it’s for a fleeting moment.”
After 14 years, “Chance,” Benaim’s fiction feature debut, remains the highest-grossing Central American movie in the region, Benaim noted. Winning the best actor and best actress awards at Mexico’s Guadalajara Festival and released when the pandemic was still roiling, “Plaza Catedral” screened on Netflix and Spain’s upscale streaming service Filmin.
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