The anticipated feature debut of Aritz Moreno, “Advantages of Traveling by train” is lead-produced by San Sebastian-based Señor y Señora, an up-and-coming production house owned by Moreno and producer-director Leire Apellaniz. Madrid’s Morena Films has boarded as a co-producer. The company’s previous credits include Oliver Stone’s Fidel Castro docu-trilogy, Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” and movies by Spain’s Iciar Bollain (“Even the Rain”), Daniel Monzon (“Cell 211”) and Daniel Calparsoro (“Rob a Thief,” Spain’s No. 1 local box-office hit this year). Sold internationally by Entertainment One’s Seville International, Filmax has picked up Spain’s distribution rights. “Advantages of Traveling by Train” is penned by Javier Gullón, the Logroño-born screenwriter of Denis Villeneuve’s “Enemy,” from a cult novel by Spain’s Antonio Orejudo. Feature follows a literary agent, Helga, who is forced to check her husband into a psychiatric clinic. She meets one of its psychiatrists on a train who tells her his life story, threading three stories about one patient. Boarding a train home, she meets one of the sanatorium’s psychiatrists, Agustin Sangustín, who diagnoses patients through their writings, which he carries around in a red folder. He offers to tell her his life story, narrating three stories about one patient. But when Sangustin gets off the train to buy a sandwich, it sails off without him, leaving the folder in Helga’s possession. A story of stories within stories, told with verve by highly unreliable narrators, “Advantages of Traveling by Train” is “a film about what is true and not true, what we believe and don’t believe, what’s important and not, and the multifarious forms of derangement which we live with in society,” said Apellaniz. “A Russian-dolls’ story of stories, “Advantages” will fuse fun, surprise, and is occasionally quite sick,” Juan Gordon at Morena declared. “The seasoned producing team supporting Aritz’s debut was a key point for us in financing our first Spanish film. We believe indeed that Spain is a land of fertile creativity and blooming talents especially when you focus on elevated genre and crossover dramas as we do at Logical Pictures,” Fiore added. Awards and Festival Competitions: SITGES – Catalonian International Film Festival 2019 TOKYO International Film Festival 2019 TALLINN Black Film Nights Estonia 2020 BRUSSELS International Fantastic Film Festival 2020 FEROZ Awards 2020 (Spain): WINNER Best comedy; 7 nominations GOYA Awards 2020 (Spain): 4 nominations JOSÉ MARIA FORQUÉ AWARDS 2020 (Spain): 1 nomination SANT JORDI AWARDS 2020 (Spain): WINNER Best 1st Feature Film PLATINO AWARDS 2020 (Spain) : 1 nomination EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2020: 1 nomination
