Pluto Film will represent Alicia Scherson’s Bolaño adaptation Summer War at international markets, positioning the film as a festival-ready psychological thriller
The Berlin-based sales house Pluto Film has obtained worldwide sales rights to Summer War (original title Guerra de Verano), the latest feature from Chilean director Alicia Scherson. The acquisition comes just before the title’s market presentation at the Marché du Film in Cannes and ahead of its world premiere at the 25th Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The film adapts Roberto Bolaño’s novel The Third Reich, continuing Scherson’s literary interest after her earlier Bolaño-based work.
The project is described by producers and Pluto Film executives as a hybrid of arthouse sensibility and genre tension: a coastal-set story that uses a seemingly innocuous hobby to probe darker human impulses. With festival exposure targeted in both Europe and North America, the film arrives as a strategic piece for international programmers and discerning distributors.
Summer War draws its narrative from Bolaño’s 1989 novel The Third Reich, a text known for its uneasy mix of intimacy and menace. Scherson previously adapted Bolaño’s Una Novelita Lumpen in her 2013 film Il Futuro, and this new feature continues her engagement with the author’s atmospheric violence. The shooting took place in 2026 across locations in Uruguay and Chile, including coastal towns and urban settings. The movie began its life under the working title 1989 while participating in the San Sebastián co-production forum, a nod to the story’s temporal setting during the end of the Pinochet era.
The ensemble mixes international and Latin American performers: Canadian actor Dan Beirne leads as Udo Berger, opposite Lux Pascal as Ingrid, with notable contributions from David Gaete and Aline Kuppenheim. Beirne reportedly learned Spanish for the part, signifying the film’s bilingual textures. The production credits span multiple countries: Araucaria Cine (Chile), Nadador Cine (Uruguay), Le Tiro (Argentina) and OvePossibile (Italy) lead the financing, supported by partners in Spain, Mexico and Canada. Key creative collaborators include cinematographer Alejo Maglio and production designer Sebastián Muñoz, both of whom bring continuity with Scherson’s earlier work.
Lux Pascal’s involvement marks a high-profile local lead after recent roles abroad, while Dan Beirne anchors the story as an obsessive player whose hobby becomes a catalyst for paranoia. David Gaete</strong) plays a pivotal figure drawn from Bolaño’s text, and a wider cast of regional actors deepens the film’s cultural texture. The multilingual cast and transnational production footprint reflect an approach intended to bridge festival audiences and arthouse distribution networks.
Scherson frames the film as an adventure that is both playful and unsettling. At its core, the narrative examines obsession through the lens of a strategic hobby—an obsession that blurs the boundary between game and reality. Set against the backdrop of Chile in 1989, the story intersects personal fixation with a nation’s political transition, creating a layered atmosphere where humor and menace coexist. Producers describe the film as a psychological thriller that retains Bolaño’s darkness while allowing Scherson’s cinematic playfulness to surface.
Scherson has spoken about the challenge of occupying a male protagonist’s interiority after making films often centered around female perspectives. The director’s solution was to merge the narrative’s claustrophobic intensity with moments of detachment and irony, producing a tone that critics expect will resonate with both literary fans and genre-savvy viewers. This tonal balancing act is a central talking point for programmers and sales teams approaching the film.
Pluto Film positions Summer War as a festival-ready title that can travel to diverse markets. The deal, negotiated by Daniela Cölle with producer Isabel Orellana, is presented as a tailored approach to market the film not only as arthouse cinema but also as a taut, dark thriller. Executive producers and producers attached to the project bring a broad network of festival and distribution relationships which the sales house will leverage during the Cannes market and beyond.
The film is slated to debut at the 25th Tribeca Film Festival with screenings reported on June 7, 8 and 12, and it will be available to buyers during the Cannes market running May 12 – 23. Local distribution in Chile is already in motion through Market Chile, though a theatrical date for domestic release remains unannounced. With its festival trajectory and international sales plan, Summer War is positioned to attract both critical attention and targeted acquisitions.