Directors’ Fortnight Hijacked by Alejandro Landes’ Porfirio

It was announced that the film “Porfirio”, directed by Alejandro Landes, has been selected for the Quinzaine de Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight) at this year Cannes Film Festival. The co-production between Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, Spain and France, tells the true story of a Colombian man, crippled in a wheelchair after being injured in a crossfire with the police, that after more than a decade asking for a disability allowance decides to hijack a plane with the help of his teen son in order to attract attention from the country’s president about his situation.

Although this is a fiction debut film for Landes, (he directed the acclaimed documentary “Cocalero” ), “Porfirio” has already a history in film festivals where the project has been gestating since its conception. The screenplay was selected for the Screenwriters and Directors Labs ar the Sundance Institute and the Cannes Cinefondation Residency. During its postproduction it also gathered quite the attention gathering the Fond Sund Cinema award by the French CNC (Centre Nationale de Cinématographie) and the back up from the National Audiovisual Arts Institute of Argentina (INCAA) and from Ibermedia.

The film is the first Colombian film shot in Cinemascope with the intention to fully portray the complexity of the horizontal world the main character finds himself sunk into. Main photography took place in natural Colombian locations in the area of Claquetá.