A film rooted in one woman's bus ride from Andalusia to the ruins of a Basque iron mine is heading to the co-production market at the Locarno Festival, backed by a Berlinale-winning producer.

'La Koreana,' the projected feature debut of Basque writer-director Joana Moya, will be presented at Locarno's Match Me! networking event for co-producers, running August 7–9. The project is a collaboration between Sirimiri Films — founded by Estibaliz Urresola, whose '20,000 Species of Bees' won the best leading performance award at the 2023 Berlinale for young actor Sofía Otero — and Lazona Zinema, the Basque division of Lazona, according to Variety.

Urresola told the trade she wanted to produce the film because of Moya's deeply personal way of engaging with the Basque region. The story draws directly from family history: Moya's grandmother made the journey from Málaga to the mining town of La Arboleda, in the Basque province of Bizkaia, at roughly the same period the film's 1960 timeline is set.

In that timeline, a woman named Manuela — known as 'La Koreana' — arrives at the mine from her native Andalusia to join her husband, only to find the mine already in ruins. The film spans three timelines, including one set in 1890 and another around 1960, all centred on the same iron mine mountain in La Arboleda. The mountain, Moya told Variety, is the film's 'true main character.'

'La Koreana' won the Sideral Ikusmira Berriak Prize — the top plaudit at Spain's Ikusmira Berriak development lab, presented at the San Sebastián festival in September 2025. Moya attended the lab's 2025 residency, and the project is further supported through Noka Ekoizpena, a San Sebastián-based mentorship and production acceleration programme focused on women filmmakers.

On the production side, Lazona Zinema's Jesús Choya will be among the producers presenting at Locarno's Match Me! event. Choya, named one of Variety's '10 Emerging Producers to Watch' in 2024, heads Lazona Cinema, a Bilbao-based company founded that same year to produce projects from emerging Basque voices and international co-productions. Its early release, the comedy 'Sin Cobertura,' earned roughly €2.9 million ($3.4 million) at the Spanish box office. Choya previously served as a delegate producer on 'Sundays' and 'Sleepless City' during his time at Buenapinta Media, the company run by Marisa Fernández Armenteros.

The Locarno Match Me! appearance is a step toward finding international co-production partners — the financing collaborations that help films from smaller markets reach wider audiences. For a debut feature tied so closely to Basque and Andalusian history, those partnerships will shape how far the story travels from the mountain where it begins.