Colombia’s Felipe Holguin, whose “La Suprema” repped his country at the 97th Academy Awards, has boarded the lauded project “This Bolero is for ‘Ita’” from Red Collision Studios.
Written by Red Collision’s Camila Caballero, the cross-border drama has been winning recognition across its development trajectory, snagging four prizes at the Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG), a post-production award from French company Cercle Rouge at the recent Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM) and a co-production deal with EFD Studios.
A tale of love and resilience amid the turbulence of a border crisis, it follows Gustavo, a dedicated radio host in Táchira, Venezuela, who splits his time between his job and caring for his wheelchair-bound wife. When the station’s console breaks down, he decides to cross into Colombia to have it repaired, but an unexpected border closing will leave him stranded. Desperate to reach out to his wife, Gustavo conceives a gesture both romantic and ingenious: a radio broadcast of the bolero that first made them fall in love.
“I want to portray how, in the midst of political hardship and the weight of reality, everyday life remains filled with small gestures of love and memory. The story does not focus on the conflict itself, but rather on how that love transforms into a resilient force, capable of crossing distance. I want the film to breathe like a bolero: with pauses, with echoes, with the nostalgia of what has been lost and the quiet hope of what might still be found again,” Holguin told Variety.
Red Collision producers Vanessa Gómez and Sebastián Caballero describe it as “a project with a beating heart and universal resonance — a tender, profoundly human love story seen through the lens of old age, where every glance, every memory, carries the weight of a lifetime together,” adding: “In a world where borders divide, it reminds us that love transcends them all.”
“La Suprema,” which had its world premiere at Toronto in 2023, was an auspicious start for Holguin, given that it was his debut feature. Variety hailed it as a boxing drama that was “modest in scope, big on heart.” Set in a remote Colombian village without electricity, a young girl pulls out all the stops to get her town to watch her uncle fight in a world championship boxing match. Prior to “La Suprema,” he directed a raft of short films, documentaries and music videos.
Red Collision Studios’ other films include thriller “The Judge’s Shadow,” dramedy “A Certain Alonso Quijano,” both directed by Libia Stella Gomez, and “Stay Out of the Water” by Octavio Revol Molina.
