Locarno Player ‘The Days Off,’ Lucila Mariani’s Dreamlike Argentine Debut, Boarded by Inwave Films (EXCLUSIVE)

Inwave Films, the international sales company with offices in Paris and Beijing, has acquired worldwide sales rights to “The Days Off,” the debut feature from Argentine writer-director Lucila Mariani, ahead of its world premiere in Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present.

Blending coming-of-age drama with a dreamlike, science-fiction edge, the film filters Argentina’s economic instability and the pull of the digital world through the perspective of a child searching for an escape.

Set during the first days of summer, as inflation rises, power cuts intensify and a solar eclipse approaches, the film follows Bego, 12, left to occupy herself while her family contends with the country’s deteriorating economy.

Using her mother’s phone, Bego connects with a virtual friend, REN__, who introduces her to shifting, a real online practice through which teenagers use lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis to try to reach a desired reality. As people around her begin slipping into an emotionally numb trance described as being eclipsed, the boundaries between Bego’s imagination, the digital world and physical reality begin to dissolve.

Antonia Robolini stars as Bego alongside Laura Paredes, whose credits include “Trenque Lauquen,” “Argentina, 1985” and “The Delinquents.” Luiza Quinteiro and Guillermo Berthold round out the cast.

“The Days Off” was produced by Paula Zyngierman at Argentina’s Maravillacine (“Marilyn,” “Under the Flags, the Sun”), alongside Brazil’s Persona Non Grata Pictures and Vulcana Films (“Hard Paint,” “Night Stage”), with Mexico’s Woo Films (“Pedro Páramo,” “Noise”) and Valiente Films as co-producers.

France’s Misia Films, whose credits include Oscar-winning short “Two People Exchanging Saliva,” and Argentina’s Año Luz (“La Calma,” “Lagunas”) are associate producers.

“The film speaks to anyone who has ever searched for belonging in places others could not see,” said Yuxuan Zhang, co-founder and sales agent at Inwave Films. “We were captivated by its tenderness, emotional precision and singular cinematic language, and are proud to accompany the film on its international journey. We believe it will resonate deeply with audiences around the world.”

Mariani described the feature as a love letter to an earlier internet that allowed young people — particularly those in the Global South — to find friendships, culture and identities beyond their immediate surroundings.

“It’s a film that explores intimacy and hopefully invites people to search for a new spirituality — to seek hope and change in a world that often tells us otherwise,” she said.

“The Human Surge 3” DP Victoria Pereda shot the film, combining phone, webcam and security-camera imagery with long observational takes. Maximiliano Passarelli edited, with sound by Gaspar Schauer and music by Punto y Pacífico.

Developed through Cannes’ La Fabrique Cinéma, EAVE Puentes, the Locarno Filmmakers Academy and the San Sebastián Co-Production Forum, where it won the ArteKino Award, the project received support from INCAA, Programa Ibermedia, ArteKino International and Ancine.

Its world premiere is set for Aug. 7 in Filmmakers of the Present at the 79th Locarno Film Festival, which runs Aug. 5-15.