Spain's Solita Films, the company run by director-producer brothers José Esteban Allende and César Esteban Allende (“Sin Fin”, “La Pecera”), has welcomed Alberto Gros Mollo's feature debut, “Catorce de Marzo” (“March 14”).
The divorce drama is set in Barcelona, Contraria Media, one of 36 emerging producers selected to participate in the Match Me! outreach initiative at the upcoming Locarno Film Festival, which takes place from August 9-11 at the Swiss Film Festival.
The project is also co-produced by Catorce de Marzo AIE, a tax company, and Ayhe Productions.
The project is produced by Contraria Media co-founders Laura Ejidos-Blaga and Albert Ines Clapes, Ayhe's David Aymerich, and the Esteban Alenda brothers. Ejidos and Cecilia Rivas are executive producers.
In late development and funding, and set to launch by summer 2025, the producers of “March 14th” will be looking to Match Me! for a European co-producer and sales agent.
Written by Gros Mollo and Tomás Bayo Incontra, the film tells the story of Héctor, an 11-year-old boy, and his sister Gemma (6), who face the day before their parents' divorce trial, where they will be asked who they would prefer to live with from now on, fearing that they could be separated if they choose different homes.
Starting in 2021, the project has completed an intensive cycle of development labs or competitions including Ekran+ in Poland, Zagreb Film Festival My First Script in Croatia (2021), Faberllull in Spain in 2022, La Incubadora ECAM in Madrid, also in Spain, and in 2024, Berlinale Talents Script Station and D'A Film Lab in Barcelona, Germany.
During the latest edition of the New Horizons Studio+ meetup in Wrocław, which took place from July 18 to 21, the producer of the film “March 14” Egidus received an award from the Polish Producers Guild, which will take the form of mentoring and guidance from an experienced member of the guild.
The project was also among the finalists in 2022 in the 19th edition of the Julio Alejandro Screenplay Award for the best unproduced Spanish screenplay, organized by the SGAE Foundation.
The producers of “March 14” have already confirmed development funds and applied for Spanish production grants.
Solita is an arthouse film company with good connections with Latin American talent and industry, and its latest productions have been screened at festivals such as Berlinale, Sundance, San Sebastián and Malaga. It has received several Goya Award nominations, most recently in 2024 for Best Ibero-American Film for “La Pecera,” which had its world premiere at Sundance 2023.
“We had the opportunity to see the project grow in La Encubadora and the work done in development has been fantastic. We are very happy to join this film and to be able to accompany Alberto in his first feature film. At Solita Films, we love to be part of courageous films that challenge the viewer and in which one gets emotionally involved. This is the essence of ‘March 14’,” commented the Esteban brothers.
“I am interested in complex family relationships and exploring conflicts through everyday details and silences,” said writer-director Gros Mollo.
In particular, with “March 14,” Gross Mollo aims to portray the complexity of a poorly managed divorce.
“I don’t want to talk about the victims or the perpetrators, I just want to highlight the children and live this experience, which has become very common these days, from their point of view. Often they find themselves, unwittingly, in the middle of a conflict that they should not be part of,” he explained.
“This powerful personal story follows Gross’ previous work, the short films “Broken Roots”, which won the Jury Prize at the Tallinn Black Nights – PÖFF Shorts 2019, “Solo”, nominated for Best Short Film at the Gaudí Awards in Catalonia, and “As It Was” (2024),” said Laura Ejidos Blaga, producer of Contraria Media.
“In these films, you can clearly see Alberto’s interest in exploring family and human conflicts, from a raw, everyday, realistic perspective, without falsifying situations. With this very personal style, he manages to make the emotion of the moment affect the viewer, making him think about what he saw,” added Ejidos, the producer who has accompanied Gros Mollo since his first works, and who continues with his first feature film.
The Locarno Film Festival takes place from 7 to 17 August and hosts the international outreach initiative Match Me! launched by Locarno Pro.
