By MICHAEL GINGOLD
It’s sicarios vs. the supernatural in the new chiller from Argentina.
Screenwriter Nicanor Loreti gave RUE MORGUE the first look at photos for FROM WITHIN, directed by Matías Xavier Rispau (INTO THE ABYSS). The film stars Maggi Bravi, Matias Desiderio and Frank Jaime (who also produced), Alejandro Fiore, German Baudino, Ines Palombo and Emiliar Mazer. The synopsis: “Sofia [Bravi] is an ex-professional runner who ends up working as a mule for a drug cartel. When she and her best friend [Palombo] are ambushed by two corrupt cops [Fiore and Baudino] who want to kill them and take the drugs, hell will break lose when they find out what they were carrying is not of this world. Now it’s up to Doc [Desiderio], a cartel sicario and Sofia’s lover, to save their lives.”
“I wrote this screenplay during the pandemic,” Loreti tells us, “when I got the idea of ‘H.P. Lovecraft meets NARCOS,’ supervised by my friend and excellent genre writer Leo Oyola. I am really happy to have this cast involved and Matias directing it, since I loved INTO THE ABYSS so much.”
As opposed to the gruesome subject matter, “FROM WITHIN was a very pleasant experience for me,” Rispau says. “Beyond the fact that they trusted me, Loreti and Bravi to carry it out, I was assisted by a very humble crew who allowed me to carry out the ideas that were spinning in my head. Added to that, being able to work with Alejandro Fiore and Emilia Mazer on something that, at least as they told me, is not a genre they are used to was a plus.”
His two leads return the praise: “It was a pleasure to work with Rispau,” Bravi says. “He is a director with the entire final cut in his head, and super-creative! And personally, this was a challenging project on a physical and emotional level, due to the athletic preparation it required–and because I filmed it when I was three months pregnant!” Adds Desiderio, “Working with Rispau was interesting; he is a very intuitive director. Doc is an animal, a being who can go from sensuality and manipulation to savagery with merciless violence. He was a complex and fascinating character to play.”
FROM WITHIN is currently in postproduction; keep your eyes here for word of when it will bust out.
