Argentine Icon Diego Peretti's Directorial Debut ‘Death of a Comedian' Gets First Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)
It would be normal to list producers but this project has 10,190, individual investors brought together by the Orsai Community. It makes 'Death of a Comedian' as one of the more novel Argentine productions in recent memory. The film is produced by author, journalist and cultural entrepreneur Hernán Casciari's Orsai, which finances all its projects through its massive community-driven crowdfunding model totalling over 15,000 micro investors.
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The film follows Juan Debré (Peretti), an actor who's spent a lifetime playing the hero in a TV series while remaining detached from his own identity. When diagnosed with a terminal illness, he embarks on a surreal journey to Belgium, birthplace of his childhood comic book idol, in search of meaning and perhaps redemption.
Malena Villa, a standout in 'The Wailing,' co-stars and is on a good run with her recent turn in Pablo Stoll's Sitges player 'Summer Hit' and casting in Rodrigo Sorogoyen's Javier Bardem starring 'The Beloved.'
Peretti shares directing duties with Javier Beltramino ('Rice and Matchsticks'), best known for his short animation work. The film marks a tonal departure from Peretti's more familiar comic fare such as 'It's Not You, It's Me,' leaning instead into the tragicomic and existential.'I want to breathe new life into the way we look at the ordinary things around us. But how should one look? Like a child, the first time it encounters a reality outside itself,' Peretti previously told Variety, noting that he drew inspiration from the aesthetics of comic books and the surrealist painter René Magritte.
This sentiment is echoed in the trailer with the voiceover musing 'Life is beautiful…and magical…Although perhaps also too short to recognize it,' as we see a bowler hat clad Peretti drift through the Belgium environs having left bagless, one way, and seeking.
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