{"id":587841,"date":"2026-09-02T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T10:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587841\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T10:20:09","slug":"argentinas-celina-murga-preps-next-pic-the-rehearsals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587841\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina’s Celina Murga Preps Next Pic, ‘The Rehearsals’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAmong the 15 projects participating in the upcoming San Sebasti\u00e1n Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum<\/a> is \u201cThe Rehearsals\u201d (\u201cLos Ensayos\u201d) by Argentina\u2019s Celina Murga<\/a>, best known for her Martin Scorsese-executive produced dramas \u2018The Freshly Cut Grass\u2019 <\/a>and \u2018The Third Side of the River\u2019 and of course, her career-launching 2003 debut, \u201cAna and the Others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBased on various short stories by Japanese-Argentine author Alejandra Kamiya, \u201cThe Rehearsals\u201d follows Eva, nearly 50, who goes along with her 80-year-old mother, a now retired prominent doctor facing the onset of Alzheimer\u2019s. Eva\u2019s family home is also shared by her teenage son and younger sister, who share in caregiving duties. Between small celebrations, hospital visits and disagreements about how to care for her, a mysterious presence of bulls begins to surround the house. Weaving everyday reality with the fantastic, the film explores vulnerability and how caring for someone can also bring love, connection and a renewed sense of life.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film reflects on the way our society looks at aging, deterioration and death. We live in a culture that rewards youth and productivity, making aging bodies and slowing time increasingly invisible. Yet confronting mortality can also open new forms of intimacy and a renewed perception of vitality. \u2018The Rehearsals\u2019 was born from the desire to make these experiences visible and to ask what we lose when we deny our finite condition,\u201d Murga told Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe plans to shoot the film in Uruguay by 2028 and will make use of its newly introduced audiovisual tax credit on up to 30% of eligible expenditures in the country.<\/p>\n

\n\tCurrently consolidating its international co-production and financing structure, the project counts on Uruguay-based Alterna Media, which will lead the local production. Alterna Media\u2019s Maria Laura Berch, Joaquin Romero Vercellino and Lucia Vela serve as executive producers.<\/p>\n

\n\tFounded by Berch and Romero, Alterna Media\u2019s credits include \u201cLa noche sin mi,\u201d co-produced with Tarea Fina and winner of the Best First Feature award at Argentina\u2019s Premios Sur and \u201cEl mensaje,\u201d winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlinale. This year, Alterna Media presented \u201cLa de Punta Carretas,\u201d a series directed by C\u00e9sar Charlone and Fernando Meirelles, at the Berlinale, in co-production with Federation and Ojo Films.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum will take place over Sept 21 \u2013 23 during the 74th San Sebastian Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tMurga expands on her latest project and how Scorsese impacted her work:<\/p>\n

\n\tMartin Scorsese<\/a> chose to mentor you and executive produced \u201cThe Third Side of the River\u201d and your last film to date, \u201cThe Freshly Cut Grass.\u201d Are you still in touch with him? How has that experience shaped you and your filmmaking?<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, we have stayed in touch. In fact, he attended the Tribeca presentation of \u2018The Freshly Cut Grass.\u2019 He has a deep understanding of the challenges of making films in different parts of the world, particularly for women filmmakers. He is always attentive to what I\u2019m doing \u2013 he emails me to ask about my projects and suggest new ones.<\/p>\n

\n\tI value not only his place as an emblematic director in the history of world cinema, but also his human commitment and his profound understanding of cinema\u2019s power within individual cultures and across the world.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat is what I treasure most from the experience, beyond the specific technical aspects I was able to observe while watching him work on set: a sense of mission, of why we make films and what they can mean and of how deeply that purpose can inspire others.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou say \u201cThe Rehearsals\u201d is based on short stories by author Alejandra Kamiya. \u00a0Did you mean you combined several stories into one? What drew you to these stories?<\/p>\n

\n\tI combined several stories. The main one, \u2018The Rehearsals,\u2019 comes from \u2018The Patience of Water Over Every Stone,\u2019 but I also drew characters and situations from other stories in that book and from \u2018The Fallen Trees Are Also the Forest.\u2019 I was deeply struck by how these stories explore themes that interest me: the ambiguous, tense relationship between parents and children; humanity\u2019s profound connection to nature; death as an inevitable part of life and the passage of time. I was also drawn to a narrative style that subtly shifts reality toward the fantastic. This coexistence of the everyday and the extraordinary suggested to me a cinematic way of approaching death \u2013 not as a spectacular intrusion, but as a presence that slowly infiltrates daily life.<\/p>\n

\n\tWill the story be set in Argentina but shot in Uruguay because of its new tax credit? I assume that many Argentine filmmakers are going to Uruguay and elsewhere given the lack of state support in Argentina.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe story is set in Entre R\u00edos, Argentina, although its landscape and cultural context could naturally exist on the Uruguayan side of the river as well. Since the film is being produced by the Uruguayan company Alterna Media, Uruguay\u2019s current audiovisual incentives have been an important factor in making the production possible. Beyond the economic dimension, however, there is a strong cultural and geographical connection between Entre R\u00edos and Paysand\u00fa that makes this collaboration especially meaningful to the project.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe current context is also encouraging us to think about film production in more regional terms. Uruguay has created a dynamic environment for audiovisual projects and we see these opportunities not as a replacement for Argentine production, but as a way to strengthen connections between filmmakers and producers on both sides of the river.I imagine the story unfolding in an emotionally essential territory for me: my home province of Entre R\u00edos, Argentina. Uruguay shares the same river border and I have always felt a very organic connection between the two.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project also grew from my desire to work with Alterna Media\u2019s Mar\u00eda Laura Berch, with whom I have collaborated since my second film, \u2018Una Semana Solos.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat themes are you exploring in this project? Are there themes you have always gravitated to throughout your career?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe heart of \u2018The Rehearsals\u2019 is not Alzheimer\u2019s itself, but care as an everyday practice and as an experience of accepting the cycles of life. The film follows a daughter trying to accompany her mother through her final stage, navigating the challenge of remaining close without denying the loss or imposing a particular way of experiencing it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough a restrained approach, I want the cinematic gaze itself to become an ethical question: How can we look at someone experiencing deterioration without reducing them to their fragility? How can we approach vulnerability without turning it into spectacle? The film seeks to hold that tension through a deeply human perspective, where observing can also become an act of care.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film also reflects on how our society views aging, deterioration and death. We live in a culture that privileges youth, productivity and autonomy, while rendering aging bodies and slower forms of existence increasingly invisible. Old age has a political dimension that is rarely acknowledged: it confronts us with our finitude and with the fact that neither technology nor the market can buy permanence.<\/p>\n

\n\tI want to make a film rooted in affection, far from both condescension and the aestheticization of suffering\u2013 a sensitive, human portrait centered on relationships, shared time, and our ability to accompany one another. More than a film about Alzheimer\u2019s or death, I want \u2018The Rehearsals\u2019 to be, above all, a film about love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among the 15 projects participating in the upcoming San Sebasti\u00e1n Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum is \u201cThe Rehearsals\u201d (\u201cLos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,289295,156,2793,111,139,69,289296],"class_list":["post-587841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-celina-murga","tag-entertainment","tag-martin-scorsese","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-san-sebastian-co-production-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}