Ilse Salas to Star in Quijote Films' 'To Die on Your Feet'
Ilse Salas will lead the cast of To Die on Your Feet (Morir de Pie), a dramedy — a story mixing drama and comedy — from Chile's Quijote Films, according to Variety.
Salas will play Cruz. Cruz is an actress whose day job is working as a simulated patient, meaning she acts out illnesses so medical students can practise their examinations. The role puts a performer at the centre of a story about performance.
The film is the second fiction feature from Chilean director María Paz González. Her fiction debut, Lina de Lima, world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
Salas is one of Mexico's best-known film actors. She won Mexico's Best Actress Ariel Award, the country's top film prize, for The Good Girls (Las niñas bien) in 2019. She was also nominated for Ariel Awards for Güeros and Plaza Catedral.
To Die on Your Feet is being built as a six-country co-production, meaning companies in different countries share the cost and production work. Quijote Films in Chile leads the project. The partners are Amore Cine in Spain, Sutor Kolonko in Germany, Tarantula in Luxembourg, Bocacha in Uruguay and MartFilms in Mexico.
The project has backing from the Pfeffer del Sur fund of the José Ignacio International Film Festival. It was pitched, meaning presented to potential buyers and partners, at Iberseries & Platino Industria in Madrid.
That market pitch fits Quijote's wider business. The company has completed 35 international co-productions to date, according to Variety. It develops films by bringing partners together early across Latin America and Europe.
Quijote is also preparing the feature documentary Don't Let the Sun Go Up on Me. The company describes it as the first Chile-Morocco co-production, with French company Haut et Court also attached. It will be directed by Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir, who won the Best Director Award in Un Certain Regard, a key Cannes festival section for new voices, at Cannes 2023 for The Mother of All Lies. The new documentary took part in the Venice Production Bridge 2026, a market for projects seeking partners.
Quijote also brought Los Inexpertos / The Amateurs, directed by Felipe Solari Yrigoyen, to Iberseries & Platino Industria alongside Morir de Pie, according to Quijote Films on Facebook.
What makes this stand out is the shape of the slate. One intimate story about an actress, one cross-continental documentary, and both moving through markets to lock partners before cameras roll.
