Barcelona-based world sales company MoreThan Films has acquired period road movie “Les Indes” (“The Indies”), co-written and directed by first-time feature filmmakers Pauline Julier and Nicolas Chapoulier, ahead of its premiere in the Venice Film Festival’s Giornate Degli Autori (Venice Days).
Produced by Spain’s Lastor Media (“Alcarràs”) and Switzerland’s Alina Film (“The Currents”) and inspired by true events, “Les Indes” centers on Alejandro (Théo Urtubey), a young Spanish nobleman, who, along with two French soldiers (played by Raphaël Thiéry and Lazare Minoungou), is tasked with delivering a portrait of the infanta of Spain – Maria Theresa, daughter of King Philip IV – to the young king of France, Louis XIV, in the hope of sealing a fragile alliance between the two countries in 1652.
Set against a backdrop of turbulent transition as the Middle Ages moves into modernity, the film follows the three men on their long and arduous journey, across a Europe ravaged by wars and uprisings, to Versailles.
“It is the 17th century: the medieval era is fading in the face of the rise of science, rationalism, and commerce,” Julier and Chapoulier explained in a statement. “The world is no longer merely to be explored – it is to be conquered. Galileo opens new horizons, while mercantilism lays the foundations of capitalism. In this context, popular uprisings erupt under the pressure of taxation and poverty. It is along these roads, marked by tensions between the old world and the new order, that ‘Les Indes’ unfolds.”
