Luis Buñuel has received the biopic treatment in a way that befits the visionary Spanish artist. Based on a graphic novel, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles conveys the titular auteur’s hardship to complete his second film (Las Hurdes aka Land without Bread after the backlash of his first film L’age D’or by religious condemnation. From GKIDS, the distribution studio that has brought many of Studio Ghibli’s films to the states, they’ve now released a new trailer.
Director/noted visual effects artist Salvador Simó wants young burgeoning artists to connect with this film as he conveys, “But we didn’t want to tell a story a story about Luis Buñuel after 60 years. It was what was Luis Buñuel when he was 32, so one of the things that caught my eye was that he was a young director trying to find his own voice….It’s like you are not on the journey alone and that’s what I could put in the film.”
Sure to leave an indelible impression on fans of Buñuel, surrealism, animation, and artists young and old, see the trailer below.
In a stranger-than-fiction tale befitting the master surrealist filmmaker, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles tells the true story of how Buñuel made his second movie. Paris, 1930. Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel are main figures of the Surrealist movement, but Buñuel is left penniless after a scandal surrounding his first film L’Age d’Or. However, his good friend, the sculptor Ramón Acín, buys a lottery ticket with the promise that, if he wins, he will pay for his next film. Incredibly, luck is on their side, the ticket is a winner and so they set out to make the movie. Both a buddy adventure and fascinating episode of cinematic history, Buñuel and the Labyrinth of the Turtles utilizes sensitive performances as well as excerpts of Buñuel’s own footage from the production, to present a deeply affecting and humanistic portrait of an artist hunting for his purpose.
GKIDS will release the film in 2019.