CANNES - The documentary Salvatierra, directed by Santiago Raphael Priego and Gabriele Licchelli, has been selected as one of the eleven Spotlighted projects of Cannes Docs 2025, the section of the Cannes Festival’s Marché du Film dedicated to documentary cinema in development or post-production which facilitates meetings and collaborations intended to lead to the finalization and distribution of films. The programme invites potential co-producers and financial/creative partners to discover and connect with high-quality international creative documentary projects from various backgrounds. These projects come from diverse collaborations: some have received a Cannes Docs award at different markets or events in recent months, others have been curated and suggested by key partner organizations around the world.
The only Italian representative amidst the eleven selected projects, Salvatierra, is an Italian-Mexico co-production, currently in post-production - produced by Alice Drago (Epica Film, Italy), Paulina Valencia (MFC Madrefoca Cine, Mexico), Sebastián Castillo (Lacabra Lagarto, Mexico), Andrea Settembrini (Broga Doite, Italy) and was presented on May 17th at Cannes Docs’ new format: “Speedy Pitches!”.
The Film Commission Torino Piemonte (FCTP) supported Salvatierra through the Piemonte Doc Film Fund, a regional fund dedicated to the development and production of documentaries. This support allowed the project to advance through development and participate in prestigious international events. In addition to Spotlighted Projects in Cannes, it has participated in the Co-Production Forum of When East Meets West, where it was given the Badge for the Producers Network of the Marché du Film, a recognition that facilitates access to further opportunities for international co-production and distribution.
Set in the fishing community of Todos Santos, Mexico, Salvatierra explores the life of the eponymous family who live in symbiosis with the sea and its rhythms, and also with violence, vice and intergenerational pain. The shark is the main predator of the ocean. But even predators can be prey, which applies to both animals and humans. The fishermen of Todos Santos, a village of six thousand souls, meet every day on the beach of Punta Lobos to venture out in search of sharks. It is a tradition passed down from father to son, practiced by a close-knit group bound by a strong sense of brotherhood. It is a community of rituals and traditions; one that rejects tourism as a new source of income and one which, despite the strong spirit of solidarity that binds it, is also affected by drug use and violence.
The documentary focuses on Ángel, a young man who is searching for peace and a different path in life far from the sea. Forced to work since childhood to support his mother and raised without the opportunity to study, he vents his anger on alcohol and crack. Addiction makes him violent with his wife and children. Angel tries to detox and put the pieces of his life back together, but the spectre of loneliness and the visceral call of the beach and the past are indelible ghosts.
Santiago Raphael Priego and Gabriele Licchelli met at the Scuola Holden in Turin, Italy, where they made their first feature film, Arca Hotel, in 2017 which was selected for the Festival dei Popoli. In 2019, Licchelli co-directed the short film Anche gli uomini hanno fame, selected for IDFA and numerous other international festivals. Salvatierra is the continuation of their artistic collaboration, which combines Italian and Mexican perspectives in a universal narrative about identity.
"This project arose from a question: how do global economic transformations impact small communities, their social fabric, and people? We started our research with the desire to explore these social and human dynamics, which led us to get to know the community of shark fishermen of Todos Santos and to come into contact with their stories and their lives. Our goal is to use a "small", limited and local story to examine a set of themes of much broader scope, linked directly to Mexico and its current socio-political issues, but which are also, more broadly, universal, because they are "human".
Surrounded by contradictions, the community of fishermen, their relationships and lives, examine a series of issues potentially relevant to numerous communities in Latin America and in Europe.
"For us, Todos Santos" is a film about people who live in profoundly contradictory circumstances, forced to choose between their future and their identity”.