Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2021: #100. Abner Benaim’s Plaza Catedral

Plaza Catedral

Panama’s Abner Benaim’s sophomore narrative feature Plaza Catedral is a dramatic thriller featuring actress Ilse Salas (Gueros; Cantinflas) and Manolo Cardona (“Narcos”). Newcomer Fernando de Casta is also amongst the principal cast, with DP Lorenza Hagerman (Escalante’s Heli, 2013) and editor Soledad Selfate (of Sebastian Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman and Gloria). Benaim’s first narrative feature was the 2009 comedy Chance, but has since become a notable documentarian, with 2018’s Ruben Blades Is Not My Name won the Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival in the 24 Beats Per Second category.

Gist: Salas stars as Alicia, a 42-year-old-woman whose grief has caused her estrangement from society. Her world is turned upside down when 14-year-old Chief (de Casta), a young boy who looks after people’s cars, stumbles into her house bleeding.

Release Date/Prediction: Benaim completed production on Plaza Catedral in 2019 with an initial planned release in 2020. Considering the project won the VFF Talent Highlight Pitch Award back in the 2015 Berlinale when it was known as Biencuidado, we assume Benaim will be appearing somewhere in the 2021 program at the Berlinale.