Prime Video Latin America has snapped up streaming rights to Katina Medina Mora’s latest film “Latido” (“Heartbeat”), starring Oscar-nominated Marina de Tavira (“Roma”).
This is the third feature from Medina Mora, whose credits include episodes of Netflix hit “Emily in Paris,” Apple TV+’s “Swagger” and romantic drama, “LuTo,” her debut feature picked up by Netflix. Its trailer debuts exclusively on Variety.
“Latido,” which has its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival and its Mexican premiere at the Morelia Film Festival, turns on 45-year-old Leonor, played by De Tavira, who works for an NGO that supports young athletes. Leonor has struggled for years to conceive. She meets 16-year-old Emilia, a gifted ballet dancer, played by Camila Calónico, who aces her audition but whose world falls apart when she finds out she is pregnant. Leonor and Emilia make a pact to share the pregnancy process. What starts as a transactional relationship evolves into something deeper.
The film reflects on the critical issues of teenage pregnancy, infertility, adoption, especially in Mexico where the process is mired in red tape, and of grandmothers who become inadvertent caregivers when their children bear children. It also comments on the health system that rarely pays attention to women and their specific needs.
“It portrays the complexity of human relationships, from their shortcomings and affections, hoping to generate reflections and questions that will lead us to empathize more deeply with the women,” said Medina in her director’s statement.
The drama is produced by Inna Payán’s Animal de Luz, which she founded in 2011. Among Animal de Luz’s credits are lauded immigrant drama “La Jaula de Oro,” co-produced with Machete Prods.; Everardo Gonzalez’s harrowing documentary “La Libertad del diablo”; Beatriz Sanchis’ “Todos estan muertos” and Samuel Kishi’s “Los lobos.”
“‘Latido’ is a movie that explores motherhood. It tells the story of a woman who cannot have children and desperately wishes to become a mother with all her heart. On the other hand, there’s a young girl who unintentionally becomes pregnant and doesn’t want to have the baby. In reality, it’s a serendipity because they decide to make a deal to achieve something and end up discovering something else,” Payán told Variety.
“The movie was created with an entirely female crew: Nur Rubio in cinematography, Elva Algravez in production design, and produced by myself, Katina Medina Mora, and Marina de Tavira. We are very proud to be part of this feature film,” she said.
“As a producer, I feel extremely pleased to have in my hands a powerful story that delves into the individuality of two beings and addresses a very relevant topic in today’s public discourse: Women’s relationship with motherhood,” she added.
Two other Animal de Luz projects are going to Morelia: the latest documentary by Gonzalez, “Una jauria llamado Ernesto” (“A Wolfpack Called Ernesto”), about the children who are drawn into Mexico’s underworld, some trained to become sicarios (assassins), collectively called ‘Ernesto,’ and the thousands who lose their lives too soon.
Drama “Todo el silencio” (“All the Silence”), is the debut feature of award-winning theatre director Diego del Rio based on a screenplay by “La Jaula de Oro” writer, Lucia Carreras.
It turns on Miriam who teaches sign language in the mornings and in the afternoons, participates in a theater production. Her girlfriend Lola, her parents and many friends are deaf but her world begins to shatter when she finds out that she too is losing her hearing and refuses to accept her fate.
Heartbeat
