“Under The Flags, The Sun”, which translates in Spanish to “Bajo las banderas, el sol”, a documentary by Juanjo Perei, which was awarded the “Jury Prize” in the 2022 INAP Competitive Funds, will have its world premiere at the 75th edition of the Berlinale (Internationale Filmfestpiele Berlin), which will be held from February 13 to 23, 2025.
This co-production between Argentina, Paraguay, the United States and France will compete in the Panorama section, where 12 titles will be highlighted, with eight world premieres and three feature film debuts.
The documentary, a co-production of Maravilla Cine (Argentina), Cine Mio and Sabaté Films (Paraguay), reconstructs the image of a Paraguay that lost its film archive during the 34 years of Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship. In 1989, the military destroyed much of the country’s film material, leaving significant gaps in its historical memory. “Bajo las banderas, el sol” explores and analyses this rare and hard-to-find archive, while creatively incorporating the lack of these records, questioning the reliability of historical accounts and collective memory.
“Under the Flags, the Sun” generates International Interest
The film “Bajo las banderas, el sol” (Under the Flags, the Sun), by Paraguayan filmmaker Juanjo Pereira, has been selected as part of the Berlin International Film Festival, also known as Berlinale. During its development and production, the project has garnered a lot of international interest, standing out at industry events in Canada, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, and obtaining the support of important national and international film funds.
With the international title “Under the flags, the sun”, Juanjo Pereira’s feature film will have its world premiere at the Berlinale, to be held between February 13 and 23, 2025, specifically in Panorama, a competitive section of the festival that, according to the description on the website, takes the pulse of contemporary international cinema and allows curious audiences the chance to discover films that offer friction and provide material for debate.
Product of arduous research
The film is a documentary made entirely from audiovisual archives found around the world, thanks to exhaustive research by the director. After identifying and collecting more than 80 hours of materials in various formats, both film and video, files from Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Belgium were included in the final cut.
International co-production
The film is a production of Paraguay, Argentina, the United States, France and Germany, produced by the companies Cine Mío, Sabaté Films and Maravilla Cine in co-production with Lardux Films, Bird Street Productions and Welt Film. The executive production is in charge of Ivana Urízar, Gabriela Sabaté and Juanjo Pereira in Paraguay; Paula Zyngierman and Leandro Listorti in Argentina; James Costa and Trevor Burgess in the United States and Hernán Mazzeo in France.
Multiple lines of international support
Under the flags, the sun is supported by: Ibermedia Program, Paraguayan National Audiovisual Institute (INAP), National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONDEC), Argentine National Film and Audiovisual Institute (INCAA), IDFA Bertha Fund (Netherlands) and Aide aux Cinémas du Monde (France).
Paraguayan cinema is gaining increasing prestige in the world.
Other awards won by “Under the flags, the sun”
In April 2024, “Bajo las banderas, el sol” was awarded in Canada at the Pitch Forum of the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival, with third place in the First Look award, at one of the most important festivals for documentary cinema. In addition, it won the APORDOC Arché award at the DOC Lisbon Festival (Portugal), first place at the Entre Fronteras Market (Gramado, Brazil) and was selected to participate in MAFIZ (Málaga).
The film has received significant funding and support for its production, such as the Bertha Fund for production and post-production, awarded by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), received twice in 2021 and 2024, and the Aide aux Cinemas du Monde from France. The director was also selected to participate in the Berlinale Talents and one of its producers, Ivana Urízar, was chosen to participate with this project in the 2023 edition of the Open Doors Producers’ Lab at the Locarno Film Festival.
