Latido Films will bring to market “Carte Blanche,” a bloody period war action movie directed by Oscar-winning producer Gerardo Herrero (“The Secret in Their Eyes”), part of a buzzy batch of buzzy quality genre movies made at scale which marks Spain out at this year’s Marché du Film.

Set in the Moroccan desert in 1921, where Spain wages a disastrous war against Berber tribesmen of the Rif, after the massacre of Spanish conscript soldiers, an eight-man elite Spanish Legion unit sets off commanded by a sergeant hell bent on revenge after his brother’s torture and murder in the massacre. 

The raid on a local Berber village soon degenerates into racist-fueled rape, torture and slaughter and a suicide mission, as the squad attempts escape down an arid canyon, cornered by local marksmen. 

Fast-rising Spanish star Ivan Pellicer (“Querer”) plays hero Faura, who maintains a moral compass. “Carte Blanche” also stars Salva Reina (“The 47”) and Victor Clavijo (“The Wait”), the squad’s psychotic sergeant.    

Employing crafted special effects, “Carte Blanche” was shot in the same arid scrub-desert of Almería used by David Lean and Sergio Leone.   

Based on the same-titled 2004 prize winning novel by Spain’s Lorenzo Silva, “Carte Blanche” is inspired by historical fact. Spain’s Rif War, where future Spanish dictator Francisco Franco won his spurs, served as a crucible for the values and military tactics of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War where Franco treated his Republican enemy with the same humanity dealt out to Rif inhabitants.     

“The great film industries have tackled the most terrible moments of their history, and done so with courage. “It’s time we do this with the Rif War,” said Herrero.

Over a long career, since he burst onto the Spanish scene in the late 1980s, at least two of Herrero’s best films as a director have been unspooled in conflict zones: 1997’s Sarajevo-set “Comanche Territory,” and 2024’s Syria espionage thriller “Raqqa: Spy vs. Spy.”

“Gerardo Herrero is proving movie after movie he is a master director of films that capture audience attention and not let it go. ‘Carte Blanche”’is a gripping action film that does not let you breath while watching it and stays with you when the film finishes,” Latido Films head Antonio Saura told Variety.

Latido Films’ 2026 Marché du Film slate also features “The Harvester,” from David Pérez Sañudo, one of Spain’s most rated younger directors, behind “Ane.” 

A big-budget film for Spain starring Antonio de la Torre (“The Realm”) and Patricia López Arnaiz (Sundays”), it turns on Spain’s first documented serial killer, boasting meticulous 1870s period construction.

Also making its market premiere is “La Luz,” from San Sebastián winner Fernando Franco (“Wounded”). Centring on a Catholic priest’s past that comes back to haunt him as he seeks redemption, it is produced by top Spanish indie Morena Films (“Everybody Knows”).

The Harvester

Patricia López Arnaiz in ‘The Harvester’ Courtesy of Latido Films