By Alex Ritman
Paris-based sales house Charades has sold the Argentinian Western-inspired documentary “Gaucho Gaucho” across much of Europe.
The film — which won a Sundance Jury Prize in January and recently played at CPH:DOX — has landed deals with Tandem (France), Filmin (Spain), Selmer Media (Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Denmark), M2 (Romania, Poland, Hungary. Ex-Yugoslavia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria), Praesens (Switzerland) and Bantam Films (Benelux). Variety understands a U.K. sale is currently under discussion.
Directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, the duo behind the box office hit “The Truffle Hunters,” “Gaucho Gaucho” explores the story of a community of cowboys and cowgirls in Northern Argentina who live outside the modern world.
Produced by Dweck and Kershaw for Beautiful Stories Prods., the film is shot in black-and-white and celebrates the beauty and passion of a group of skilled Argentine cowboys and cowgirls, known as gauchos. It weaves together a mosaic of tales about gauchos confronting the fragility of their world in the face of unprecedented change. The stories follow the lives of men and women of different ages, backgrounds, and talents who are all connected in their fight to remain free. Dweck and Kershaw took two years to film and edit the 143 shots featured in the film.
“Gaucho Gaucho” has been praised by international critics, including Variety’s Guy Lodge, who described it as a “perfectly framed” and “loving, visually resplendent documentary” that “gives the Argentine cowboy community ample space to bond and merge.”
Alongside Dweck and Kershaw, other producers include Cameron O’Reilly, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos and Matthew Perniciaro, while exec producers include Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Emily Bock, Laszlo Bock, Marni Grossman, Adam Lewis, Melony Lewis, Meadow Fund, Regina K. Scully, Nathalie Seaver, Jake Stern, Jim Swartz, Susan Swartz, Grazka Taylor, Jamie Wolf, Shari Sant, Nina Fialkow and David Fialkow. René Cruz is a co-exec producer.