Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #109. El olvido que seremos – Fernando Trueba

El olvido que seremos

Spain’s Fernando Trueba is on the verge of one of his most prolific periods it seems, and we’ll next seem him with Caracol TV’s produced El Olvido que Seremos (Forgotten, We’ll Be), starring Javier Camara (Sex and Lucia, 2001; Talk to Her, 2002). Based on the popular novel by Hector Abad Faciolince, the project is lensed by Sergio Ivan Castano (Alias Maria, 2015). Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner (Kieslowski’s Three Colors trilogy and The Double Life of Veronique) provides the score.

The well-traveled Trueba scored an international breakthrough in 1992 when Belle Epoque took home the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and his 2010 film Chico & Rita received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. Trueba has competed three times in Berlin, with 1986’s Year of Enlightenment (which took home a Silver Bear), 1992’s Belle Epoque and 1999’s The Girl of Your Dreams (the 2016 sequel to that film, The Queen of Spain, played out of competition in Berlin). In 2012, Trueba won Best Director in San Sebastian for The Artist and the Model. At the Venice Film Festival, Trueba’s 1980 debut Opera Prima was programmed in the Officina veneziana sidebar and he competed for the Lion in 1989 with English language Twisted Obsession. Trueba is also reuniting with his Chico & Rita co-director for a new animated feature, They Shot the Piano Player (which will also feature Jeff Goldblum, who headlined Twisted Obsession) and documentary Tenorio on the Brazilian pianist.

Gist: Hector Abad Faciolince’s 2006 publication is a memorial to his father, whose criticism of the Colombian regime led to his murder by paramilitaries in 1987.

Release Date/Prediction: Currently in post-production, Trueba seems poised for a major festival platform in 2020. Berlin could be too soon (but if selected, he’d likely be competing a fourth time). Based on Caracal TV’s recent slate (which included Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent and Birds of Passage plus Alejandro Landes’ Monos), we could reasonably expect Trueba to make his first entry in the Cannes program, likely in Directors’ Fortnight.