El Dorado

Original Title: El Dorado

Runtime: 90'

Expected Release: End of 2027

Production Stage: Late development, pre-production

1st Feature: No

Looking for: Co-producers, funds, gap financing, pre-sales, sales agent

Synopsis:

El Dorado is set in Chiatura, where manganese that powers the modern world returns as dust, broken houses, and erased villages. As open-pit mining spreads, the film follows a nurse crossing the damaged region, women who carry memory through daily life, and Zurab, who searches for a sealed cave said to hold treasure. A deep immersion into a landscape being hollowed out, where care, memory, and belief persist under pressure.

Director/Producer’s Profile:

Rati Oneli is a Georgian filmmaker whose practice moves between documentary and fiction. His work is shaped by a close attention to duration, atmosphere, and sensory soundscapes, and often returns to places where memory, history, myth, and material reality intersect. He directed the feature documentary City of the Sun, which premiered at the Berlinale and screened widely at international festivals and museums. He was the producer and co-writer of the feature film Beginning. His recent work includes the short We Are the Hollow Men and his debut fiction feature Terrestrial Bodies. Across his films, he develops a cinema rooted in proximity, lived experience, and the tension between intimate worlds and larger political and historical forces.

 

Producer’s Profile:

Valérianne Boué began her career in political science and cultural management, working with French producer Anatole Dauman before joining Lazennec Productions, where she oversaw its theatrical distribution division. She subsequently developed the documentary department at TS Productions (France) and in 2006 began her collaboration with Les Films d’Ici. In recent years, she has focused on producing documentary films and series centred on history and human stories, with a particular affinity for hybrid forms, animation and international co-productions. Her work has been screened at festivals and broadcast by television networks worldwide.

Marianna Kaat is an award-winning filmmaker and producer based in Tallinn, Estonia, with over two decades in the industry. She is the founder of Baltic Film Production (BFP), an independent production company specializing in internationally recognized documentaries. Her notable works include “The Last Relic” (2023), “Life of Ivanna” (2021), “Close Relations” (2016), “Pit No 8” (2010)—all celebrated on the global festival circuit and won numerous awards. She has collaborated with leading directors and contributed to the advancement of creative non-fiction filmmaking. Beyond filmmaking, Kaat is an Associate Professor at Tallinn University’s Baltic Film, Media, and Arts School and curates the Doc@PÖFF International Competition at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Her contributions have earned her the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award, a European Trailblazer title at MIPDOC Cannes, and multiple international festival awards.