Rayuela, the prominent Colombian shingle company known for memorable photographs such as Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard title, Alias María, El Paramo and Rebellion, will undergo a change in leadership, although six of its original partners will remain. In the process, Federico Duran founded his own company, El Sol Ermitaño, but continues to own shares in the company, which has been around for more than 30 years.
Catherine Villarreal and Ana María Tarazona will take over as directors, with filmmaker Daniela Castro Valencia taking on the role of content consultant.
This new structure gives partners more flexibility to pursue projects with other companies and platforms, rather than working solely through Rhayuela.
“More than just a change, this new structure represents a natural evolution for Rayuela. What is changing is not the direction of the company, but who is leading it. We want to continue to create stories that have a unique voice, stories that embrace creative risks, engage with the world, and find new ways to connect with audiences without losing commercial appeal,” said Villarreal and Tarazona.
Director José Luis Rujeres, one of the founding partners along with Jadar Rangel and Oscar Navarro, reflected on the changes: “I think these are the natural evolution of Rayuela. We are giving way to a new generation who will be responsible for the management and day-to-day operations of the company. Of course, we partners will continue to support them, while at the same time opening ourselves to new opportunities and new challenges.”
Rugeles and Tarazona’s TV series project “Rookies” (“Officina de Detective”) just swept the in-kind awards given out at the Bogota Audiovisual Market, which ended on July 10th.
Rayuela’s current schedule includes approximately five feature films and three television series in various stages of development, production, and distribution. This is an editorial line featuring auteur films, documentaries, thrillers, contemporary dramas, and comedies.
Among the pictures is “The Other Side” (“El otro lado”), Rugeles’ fifth full-length novel. “Oblivion” (“El Olvido”), a Latin American gothic thriller. “Lovers Go Home” is a co-production between Colombia, Canada and France. The military action thriller “The Awakening” (“El Despertar”), which premiered at the Guadalajara Film Festival and was sold to multiple territories by Latido, and “The Shape of Trees” (“La forma de los arboles”), a documentary directed by Castro with support from the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms.
In television, in addition to “The Rookies”, the company has developed the series “On Hold” and “We Promise You Nothing” (“No Te Prometemos Nada”), which reflect Rayuela’s commitment to exploring different genres and narrative forms.
Rhayuela Films has finished filming “Lovers Go Home!” in Montreal earlier this year. A multinational co-production involving Rayuela, Duran’s El Sol Hermitaño (Colombia), Dublin Films (France), Potenza Producciones (Spain) and Camera Oscura (Canada), it was shot in the Colombian cities of Medellin and Santa Marta in November and December last year.
