Bendita Film Sales has acquired international rights to “The Fortunate Isles” (“Las islas afortunadas”), a 15th-century period drama directed by Helena Girón and Samuel Delgado, ahead of its world premiere in Toronto’s Discovery section.
“The Fortunate Isles” marks the second feature from Girón and Delgado, whose debut, “They Carry Death” (“Eles transportan a morte”), premiered at Venice International Critics’ Week in 2021 before receiving a Special Jury Mention at San Sebastián’s Zabaltegi-Tabakalera sidebar.
The Spanish-Greek co-production is produced by Spain’s El Viaje Films and La Banda Negra, with Greece’s Asterisk* as co-producer.
Set in the Canary Islands following the French-Norman conquest of the archipelago’s eastern islands, the film unfolds as a new colonial order takes root under the Spanish Crown.
Fátima, an enslaved woman, lives under an elderly, decadent French marquis who controls the island’s only source of fresh water. When villagers rebel and the well runs dry, she sets out across the barren landscape in search of water — and a chance of survival for the entire community.
