Natalia Smirnoff, an art director-turned casting director-turned filmmaker will see her debut film, what appears to be a Berlin Film Festival favorite, get a theatrical run via the IFC folks. Smirnoff, who’s worked with Lucrecia Martel and Pablo Trapero, saw her debut film Puzzle receive a Films In Progress screening at the San Sebastian Film Festival, just prior to landing a main comp spot in Berlin. IFC is planning to release the film in the Fall, in my estimation a Toronto Int. Film Festival showing should be in the cards.
Smirnoff who cast Maria Onetto in Lucrecia Martel’s La mujer sin cabeza and Arturo Goetz in The Holy Girl used the two vet actors for her pic – which sees Maria del Carmen (Onetto) is a forty-something housewife whose only concern over the past twenty years has been the well-being of her husband and of her now grown-up kids. But when she is offered a puzzle for her birthday, she suddenly discovers she hasa very special gift: she can assemble puzzles really fast! Intrigued by an ad “Looking for Partner for Puzzle Competitions” in her local store, she decides to live her new addiction fully, no matter how unsupportive her family is.Together with the author of the ad, a magnetic millionaire bachelor (Goetz), she realizes she is a genius for solving puzzles, which doesn’t resolve her personal issues.
