Ascidian Films is delighted to confirm that Harry Domenico Rossi’s debut feature Pescador will make its European Premiere at Raindance Film Festival on 18th June, where it has been selected for the Narrative Competition.
Described as ‘fantastic and meditative’, the film has received two Raindance nominations: Best Director of a Debut Feature for Rossi and Best Performance in a Debut Feature for Alex Wanebo.
A singular work of magical realism, Pescador arrives in London following its World Premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI Goa). Rossi also received the Peter Brunette Award for Best Director at RiverRun International Film Festival where the jury statement announced “every step was a creative risk that pays off in poetry.”
Against a backdrop of Costa Rica’s lush jungles and beatific vistas, Pescador follows an American scientist searching for a mythical fish; her erratic and hostile brother; and a lonely fisherman, who dreams of a son. As their lives intersect, the film asks what is sacrificed in isolation and what is risked in connection.
A champion of early career filmmakers and boundary-pushing films, Raindance Film Festival is a fitting home for Pescador, a debut that embraces life, death, and the places in between.
This feature debut grew from a deeply personal place. The film’s mystical underwater imagery and themes of rebirth were inspired by dreams Rossi had while in a coma and the isolation of his recovery.
Calling the film “mesmerising” and “a perfectly calibrated debut,” High On Films praised Rossi’s “remarkably assured direction” and cinematographer Isaac Banks’s (Moonglow, Lingua Franca) “breathtaking” images. Royal Welsh graduate Alex Wanebo gives a quietly magnetic performance at the centre of the film, which also stars Spencer Bang and Costa Rican fisherman-turned-actor Mario Chacón.
The film includes production design by Tori Lancaster, production by Isaac Banks, Gimena Cortés Ramírez, and Annie Rasiel and music by Dylan Marx.
