Anant Singh film selected for world premiere at Berlin International Film Festival

Leonardo Ortizgris and Gael Garcia Bernal in Museo, Image credit: Guanajuato Film Fest via UDGTV site.

Directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios and starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Leonardo Ortizgris, Alfredo Castro and Simon Russell Beale, Museo is co-produced by Panorama Global, Detalle Films, Ring Cine, Distant Horizon and Serendipity Point Films.

Singh previously partnered with the Panorama Global team on Remember which was co-produced by Detalle Films, Distant Horizon and Serendipity Point Films.

Singh praises Alonso Ruizpalacios

Museo is loosely based upon true events and follows two veterinary school drop-outs who find that they are in way over-their-heads when they commit Mexico’s most improbable heist – the looting of its sacred Anthropology Museum – but the invaluable treasure quickly turns into an inescapable and ruinous curse that is impossible to fence.

Commenting on the Berlin selection, Singh said, “We are honoured that Museo has been invited to participate in the prestigious official competition of the Berlin International Film Festival in February, being one of only 24 films which are selected for the official competition from hundreds of films submitted. Director, Alonso Ruizpalacios has crafted an exceptional film and is one of the most exciting directors I have worked with.”

Museo is the first film to secure permission to shoot in Mexico’s National Anthropology Museum and at the Mayan ruins of Palenque, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The production did a magnificent job recreating the interior of the Aztec, Mayan and Zapotec exhibit rooms of the Museum as they were in 1985, the year in which the story is set.

Award-winning team

Director, Alonso Ruizpalacios previous film, Gueros won the Best First Feature Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2014, and numerous additional awards.

Shepherds and Butchers produced by Singh won a Panorama Audience Award for Fiction Films, the first ever for a South African film at the Berlin Film Festival in 2016.

Written by Ruizpalacios and Manuel Alcalá, Museo is produced by Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Müffelmann, Ramiro Ruiz and Manuel Alcalá, in association with Detalle Films (Endless Poetry, The Dance of Reality), Ring Cine, Distant Horizon (Shepherds and Butchers, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom) and Serendipity Point Films (Barney’s Version, Eastern Promises). The film is executive produced by Moisés Cosío, Gael García Bernal, Anant Singh, Brian Cox and Robert Lantos.

Museo will be released in South Africa in October this year.