Argentine Film ALANIS Receives LA Theatrical Release

Uncork'd Entertainment announces the U.S. theatrical release of Alanis by acclaimed Argentine director Anahí Berneri (A Year Without Love), winner of the Best Director and Best Actress awards at the San Sebastian Film Festival-marking only the second time the festival gave its best director honor to a woman-and a favorite at numerous international film festivals including Toronto, Jeonju and Neighboring Scenes at New York's Lincoln Center. The film opens on Friday, November 30 at the Laemmle Glendale in Los Angeles, followed by other cities across the country including San Diego and Baltimore, and a VOD release on Tuesday, December 4.

A bold and compelling drama, Berneri's fifth feature film portrays three days in the life of Alanis, a young mother and sex worker struggling to survive. Together with her one-year-old son, she shares a so-called private apartment in downtown Buenos Aires with an older woman, Gisela, where the two live and work. One day, municipal inspectors posing as clients shut down their business and charge Gisela with human trafficking.

With nowhere else to turn, Alanis shows up at her aunt's clothing store in Plaza Miserere, a violent inner-city neighborhood. Finding temporary refuge there, Alanis must now help her friend Gisela, take care of her son and somehow recover her own dignity. She will try to work at what she knows how to do best, but the streets have their own rules and Alanis will have to fight to make room for herself.

Featuring a potent performance by Sofía Gala Castiglione in the title role (alongside her real-life son Dante), this timely film by one of Argentina's strongest new directors offers an unsentimental and non-moralizing take on a self-determined woman trying to live her life unapologetically while facing contradictory laws that are intended to protect her but often do the opposite.