Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to the Marc Silver-Gael Garcia Bernal documentary “Who Is Dayani Cristal?” for a spring release.
“Dayani Cristal” won the Sundance 2013 cinematography award and screened at New York Film Festival.
Silver and Garcia Bernal tell the story of one of the many migrant workers who lost their lives in Arizona’s Sonora desert as a way of looking at the dangers facing illegal immigrants from Central America. U.S. officials said that the dead man’s remains were among the more than 200 sets of human remains discovered by the border patrol in the desert in 2010.
The film’s title comes from a tattoo on his chest reading “Dayani Cristal.”
Kino Lorber said the film will add an important perspective to the immigration reform debate in the United States and move audiences who may be less aware of the issue.
The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber’s Richard Lorber and Elizabeth Sheldon and Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment.
The film was produced by London-based Pulse Films as well as Canana Films, headed by Diego Luna, Garcia Bernal, Julian Levin and Pablo Cruz. The film was made with the support of Impact Partners , Candescent Films, Britdoc Foundation, Oak Foundation, Ford Foundation and The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Fund.
