EVA DOESN’T SLEEP / Eva ne dort pas

 

Los Angeles Premiere • Drama • France, Argentina 2016

DCP • 1.85 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 85 min

Directed by: Pablo Agüero

Written by: Pablo Agüero

Cinematography: Ivan Gierasinchuk

Film Editing: Stéphane Elmadjian

Original Score: Valentin Portron

Produced by: Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin (JBA Production), Canana Films, Haddock Films, Tornasol Films

Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal (Massera), Denis Lavant (Koenig), Sabrina Machi (Eva), Imanol Arias (Dr Ara) 

International Sales: Pyramide International  • pyramidefilms.com

 

Part hagiography, part ghost story, this visionary drama featuring Gael García Bernal and Denis Lavant chronicles the epic 25 year journey of a corpse. Not just any corpse, mind you, but that of the beloved champion of working-class Argentines, Eva Perón, whose tragic death at the age of 33 prompted a spectacle of public grief that lasted for weeks. Fetishized in death, the bizarre-but-true fate of Perón’s cadaver becomes a metaphor for a nation haunted by a broken dream of social justice and unity. Told in elliptical chapters, we meet the official state embalmer whose task to prepare his “masterpiece” for permanent public display leads to some rather unnervingly intimate situations. Then there’s a pair of soldiers whose mission to smuggle the “Sleeping Beauty” out of the country gets sidetracked by certain, less respectful preoccupations. Like a piece of stolen art, her mystique grows, until the new military junta decides to put a dead person at the top of the list of people to be permanently disappeared.

Four years of historical research went into the making of this, the third feature of writer/director Pablo Agüero. His previous work, First Snow (winner of the Best Short Film prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival), and features Salamandra (2008), and 77 Doronship (2009), all displayed the Argentine filmmaker’s experimental bravura and knack for mining the absurd from the seemingly ordinary. With Eva Doesn’t Sleep, Agüero aims for a wider audience while retaining his surrealist touch. The film’s principal producing partner, France’s JBA Productions, is a boutique production house with over 50 titles from filmmakers across the world. Agüero initially saw actress Sabrina Machi, who plays Eva, in the casting process for another character. After giving her the lead role, she underwent special training to control involuntary movements, including swallowing, eyelid movement, and breathing.

 

Quotes:

“…further cements the Argentinean auteur as a vital voice in the cinematic landscape.”

– Robert Bell, Exclaim

“…a singular and wonderfully creepy work.”

– Ben Nicholson, CineVue

“Bold and original, and boasting brilliant set pieces.”

– Diana Sanchez, TIFF