Rhayuela Restructures as Duran Launches El Sol Ermitaño
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- Rhayuela is reshuffling its leadership while keeping all six original partners on board, with Catherine Villareal and Ana María Tarazona taking the helm and filmmaker Danniela Castro Valencia becoming content consultant.
- Federico Duran has formed his own company, El Sol Ermitaño, while retaining a stake in Rhayuela, the Colombian shingle behind Cannes 2015 Un Certain Regard title 'Alias María' as well as 'El Páramo' and 'Rebellion.'
- Founding partner José Luis Rugeles called the changes 'a natural evolution,' saying the partners are making way for a new generation while continuing to support Rhayuela's operations.
- Rhayuela's current slate spans five feature films and three TV series across auteur cinema, documentary, thriller, contemporary drama, and comedy, in various stages of development, production, and distribution.
- Rugeles and Tarazona's TV series 'Rookies' ('Oficia de Detectives') swept the in-kind awards at the Bogota Audiovisual Market, which wrapped July 10.
- 'Lovers Go Home!' is a five-country co-production involving Rhayuela, Duran's El Sol Ermitaño (Colombia), Dublin Films (France), Potenza Producciones (Spain), and Camera Oscura (Canada), which wrapped shooting in Montreal after filming in Medellín and Santa Marta.
Why it matters: Rhayuela, the 30-plus-year-old Colombian house behind Cannes title 'Alias María,' is transitioning leadership to Catherine Villareal and Ana María Tarazona while letting partner Federico Duran spin off his own shingle. The new flexible structure, which lets partners pursue projects outside Rhayuela, is already producing cross-border output — the five-country 'Lovers Go Home!' shoot wrapped this year across Colombia, Canada, France, and Spain.
