France’s Les Films de l’Isle Sauvage and Switzerland’s Alva Films have joined forces with Pedro Speroni’s Thalia After Thalia, produced by Argentina’s El Ojo Silva. The documentary is one of the projects selected for this year’s prestigious IDFA Forum and will be screened as part of the proposed project.
The film follows the titular 27-year-old, who spent eight years in a high-security prison in Argentina. Upon her release, Talia returns to live with her mother in a marginalized community, where she begins the difficult path to integration. In an interview with Variety outside a festival in the Netherlands, Speroni said the project will “bring an end” to a trilogy that began with 2021’s “Rancho” and 2023’s “Bilbaos.”
“This collaboration is a great pleasure,” he said of the recently signed deal, highlighting the partners’ commitment to stories driven by social causes. “Together with Alva Films and L’Ile Sauvage, we are focused on giving our protagonists a noble voice, and as a team we are working with great dedication to achieve this. We believe this co-production is essential to securing the necessary funding for the film’s production. At the same time, we believe that the dedicated and talented vision of Alva Films and L’Ile Sauvage will greatly enhance the project and allow us to tell a powerful story about Talia.”
The director says that while the protagonists may be from a different world than his own, their stories “intersect with my personal history in unexpected ways.” He recalls growing up as a 10-year-old in an upper-class family of ambassadors and bankers, and even served as an altar boy for Pope John Paul II. Suddenly, his family loses everything in a highly publicized scandal. His mother’s family owned a bank that collapsed, leaving thousands of people without money and tarnishing the family’s reputation both in Argentina and abroad.
“My uncle, who was like a father to me, was sent to prison,” Speroni recalls. “Every week, my mother and I went to see him. That period defined much of my childhood. Years later, while studying film, I was admitted to a high-security prison. The experience brought back my early memories with overwhelming clarity. I ended up spending two years behind bars making Rancho and Bilbaos. With Talia After Talia, I am completing a quest that I started 10 years ago.
“Talia After Talia” provided by El Ojo Silva
Speroni recalls meeting Talia and being immediately drawn to her personality and story. He asked the inmate to make a film with her and began recording the moment she left prison for the first time since she was 18. The nature of the project posed many challenges, from the bureaucratic maze of filming in a high-security prison to documenting Thalia’s life in a tough neighborhood in Buenos Aires.
“Talia After Talia” is currently in an advanced stage of development, with the team already filming “key scenes” including the protagonist’s release. Mr. Speroni arrived at IDFA in search of funding to complete filming the film and to find a distributor and broadcaster. Speroni said it was a “huge pleasure” for the entire team to participate in the forum. “Participating in the forum not only puts us in the spotlight but also gives us the opportunity to meet colleagues, producers, directors and distributors, building relationships based on trust, friendship and the possibility of future collaboration. We feel this is the perfect place to share our projects.”
