France’s Chakalaka Films Joins Colombian Period Drama ‘In All My Journeys I Am Returning,’ Selected for Ventana Sur’s Primer Corte (EXCLUSIVE)

French production company Chakalaka Films has joined Colombia’s Los Niños Films on the upcoming period drama “In All My Journeys I Am Returning” (“Todos mis viajes son viajes de regreso”), set to participate at Ventana Sur‘s Primer Corte industry centerpiece screenings for Latin American fiction films in post-production.

Ahead of the film’s Ventana Sur appearance, its producers have also unveiled key cast members, including Camila Bejarano Wahlgren (“The Sandhamn Murders”), Frederik Lundin (“The Hypnosis”), Denis Lavant (“Holy Motors”), Carlos Mario Echeverry (“2091”).

Set in Colombia in the early 19th century, the film follows Karl and Petronella, a Swedish couple looking to find a fortune in South America. As they traverse through desolate territories after the independence war, they lose their bearings and become lost while on a long river journey. Rather than riches, the two find only a reflection of their own nostalgia and the ghost of otherness.

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Several aesthetic choices, including the film’s aspect ratio, the pressure of on-screen artifacts and the graininess of the footage, add to its antique patina, giving the impression that one is watching something historic, almost like archival footage.

“In All My Journeys” is the feature debut of Manuel Ponce de León, who co-wrote the film’s script with César Jaimes and Jerónimo Uribe. The director’s 2021 short “Beyond the Night” won a special mention at the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film. As a project, the film was backed by the 2022 Malaga WIP and Malaga Festival Funds & Co-Production and the 2023 FDC Proimagenes Colombia Production Award.

“The journey became the central theme of this project,” the filmmaker told Variety. “Whether physical or poetic, the journey is a fundamental state of the human soul, a gateway to imagination and the search for identity. Migration emerged as a central issue in our history, an inevitable path to otherness. ‘In All My Journeys I am Returning’ is a film about the human need to imagine, to be able to return to a life that was lost, one that is desired in the future, or one that may never exist. This film aims to ride that delirious train that seems to travel back to nowhere.”

This year’s Ventana Sur takes place in Montevideo, Uruguay, over Dec. 2-6.