Natalia Solórzano Vásquez’s upcoming “Spells to Revive a Witch” has found new partners in Spain’s Testaferro and Uruguay’s Guay Films. The hybrid documentary, headed to the Costa Rica Media Market, is produced by Costa Rica’s Sputnik Films. Mariana Murillo’s label has previously produced Sofía Quirós Ubeda’s Cannes-selected “Land of Ashes,” and it’s currently in post-production with the filmmaker’s follow-up, “Madre Pájaro.”
“Spells to Revive a Witch” marks the first collaboration between Natalia Solórzano Vásquez and the burgeoning Sputnik Films banner. Her debut feature, “Avanzaré tan despacio,” premiered at IDFA in 2019 and her short films have found success at the Costa Rica International Film Festival. Her latest project is a “casting call to embody” Costa Rican fortune teller Soralla de Persia, who rose to fame in the 1960s. The hybrid documentary will become a “stage” where “different women invoke her spirit through memories, interpretations, and personal experiences.”
Speaking with Variety, Solórzano Vásquez says she discovered Soralla “almost by accident” while researching women who had “appeared in Costa Rican media.” “I had never heard of her before, which immediately struck me. She had once been one of the most recognizable women in the country, yet she had almost completely disappeared from our collective memory.”
