Basil Da Cunha's new feature O Jacaré will world-premiere in Locarno's International Competition, with Barcelona-based Low Light Films handling international sales ahead of the festival berth (Variety). The Portuguese-Swiss writer-director's film runs 92 minutes, in Creole and Portuguese, and lands in the Swiss festival's main competition section, the Concorso Internazionale (Locarno Festival).

The story is set in the Reboleira neighbourhood of Lisbon, where someone is hiding €180,000 — roughly $200,000. Da Cunha has been filming in Reboleira for more than 20 years, and O Jacaré is his final film set there, as the district faces pending demolition (Variety).

The film draws its tension from Cape Verdean music and an ensemble cast of locals. It is produced by Thera Production in Switzerland, with co-producers Continue Walking in Portugal and RTS Radio Télévision Suisse. Low Light Films, founded by Jainer Morales Mena, picked up the international sales rights before the premiere, meaning the company will represent the film to distributors and buyers in territories outside its production countries (Variety).

Festival placements like Locarno's International Competition matter because they are where sales agents meet acquisition executives from distributors and streaming platforms. A competition slot at a major A-list festival gives a film visibility with the programmers and buyers who decide what reaches cinemas in the months that follow.

For Da Cunha, the premiere carries a different kind of weight. Two decades of returning to the same Lisbon streets, and now those streets are slated to disappear. The film arrives in DCP 4K, in colour, as a record of a place — and a filmmaking relationship with it — reaching its final frame (Locarno Festival).