Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #53. Isabella – Matías Piñeiro

Isabella

Argentina’s Matías Piñeiro seems to be somewhere in the midst of his latest Rohmer-esque Shakespeare reads, the most recent news being his plans for Isabella, which regurgitates Measure for Measure, presumably within a similar fashion allowing for the director’s particular narrative parameters. However, an update on the status of his plans for Portia, a tackling of The Merchant of Venice, announced in late 2017 as another upcoming collaboration with his usual actors Maria Villar and Agustina Munoz, hasn’t been confirmed. Either way, his producer Melanie Schapiro would likely be involved in either endeavor. Both Piñeiro’s 2014 The Princess of France and 2016 Hermia & Helena competed in Locarno. His 2012 breakout, Viola (review), premiered in Toronto before heading to Berlin in 2013.

Gist: Isabella would tackle Measure for Measure, one of Shakespeare’s ‘problem plays,’ which focuses on the titular nun, a woman who is pressured into giving her virginity to a city official threatening to execute her brother for fornicating with his fiancée before marriage.

Release Date/Prediction: In a November 2018 interview, Piñeiro confirmed he had two gestating projects, one involving Ariel from The Tempest and the other being Isabella, which he planned to start shooting in January 2019. While it hasn’t been determined if Portia has been abandoned or completed (in late 2017, Piñeiro had mentioned potentially filming Portia in early 2018), we’d expect him to make a return to Locarno 2019.