German production team MMC Studios (“Amelie”) is supporting the romance drama “Dear Eszter,” from writer/director Alex Balassa.
Bastian Griese and Lucas Hamacher will produce the film for MMC studios in Cologne, alongside Balassa.
The film’s co-producers include Peter Seres (“World War Z”) of Punk Films in Hungary, as well as Ondrej Beranek (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) of Blindspot Capital in the Czech Republic.
Two of the main Chilean television producers, Maria Elena Wood (“Locas Mujeres”) and Patricio Pereira de Maria Wood Productions (MEW), serve as executive producers.
Said Wood: “We are delighted that Sebastian Griese and MMC are joining the project from Germany.”
Balassa and his partner Marisol Mijares are producing through the Balassa Films shingle (“Sweet Little Lies”). Balassa will direct from a script he co-wrote with a number of writers, including Mijares, Mexican Alejandro Orozco and Mario P. Székely (“And Your Mother Too”).
Based on the story of her grandmother, told to Balassa on her deathbed, the feature film tells how Estzer, based in Concepción, Chile, became a letter interpreter during World War II, after the death of her sister. . Among his clients were two lovers communicating between Chile and Hungary.
Felipe is a Chilean mechanic who loves poetry and lives under the Chilean dictatorship. Ilonka is a cellist working as a janitor at the Budapest post office during Goulash communism. Their meeting could be put in jeopardy after discovering that Eszter embellished their letters.
The script has so far won 16 awards. It was a screenplay finalist at the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards last year; a semi-finalist in The Script Lab – TSL Free Screenplay Contest in 2021; and semi-finalist at the Golden Script Competition 2022, among others.
Producers are looking for a European network, a streaming platform or a sales agent or distributor.