Name Franco de Peña |
Country Venezuela |
"Love in Concrete" is Franco de Peña’s first feature film; three episodes recounting tragic yet comic love stories spanning over a single night on Caracas’ busy main street Avenida Libertador. The film was premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2003 – remarkable for a debut film – and received several international prizes, including the award for the Best Direction at the 29th Ibero-American Festival of Huelva.
In 2004, Franco de Peña worked on the collective documentary film "Welcome to São Paulo", marking the 450th anniversary celebrations of the Brazilian capital. A year later he went on to direct the Polish-Luxembourgian co-production "Your name is Justine" (2005), which is based on his own screenplay. It tells of the tragic fate of a Polish woman Mariola, who gullibly follows her boyfriend Artur to Berlin and once there is forced into prostitution. Franco de Peña lives alternately in Caracas and Poland.