Skip to main content
They Shot the Piano Player film image

They Shot the Piano Player

Dispararon Al Pianista

This event has passed

Chico & Rita team Fernando Trueba and animator Javier Mariscal return with another animated musical docu-fiction, this time focussing on the story of Francisco Tenório Jr, a brilliant Brazilian pianist who was murdered while touring Argentina in 1976, at the age of 35. Was this a random act of violence, or an extension of the totalitarian crackdown on artists and dissidents rife throughout South America at that time? The movie is not just a political mystery thriller and Tenório was much more than a victim. A prodigious jazz samba player, he emerged with the blooming of Bossa Nova in the 1960s, allowing Trueba to celebrate the sounds of João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, and Paulo Moura (several of whom also share their memories of the pianist).

Jeff Goldblum voices the character of an American journalist who sets out to write a book about the Brazilian music of the period but who becomes obsessed with Tenório’s story (a stand-in for Treuba himself), while Mariscal’s Rotoscope animation adopts strikingly different hues for different timeframes: rich and saturated in the nightclub scenes, near monochrome when the authorities detain and torture Tenório.

 

Media Partner

Community Partner

Directors
Cast

Jeff Goldblum, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Joao Gilberto, Vinicius de Moraes

Credits
Country of Origin

Spain/France

Year

2023

Series

Showcase

Language

In English, Portuguese and Spanish with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
103 min
Animation Art, Music & Photography Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Executive Producer

Nano Arrieta, Fabien Westerhoff

Producer

Cristina Huete

Screenwriter

Fernando Trueba

Directors

Fernando Trueba headshot

Fernando Trueba

Fernando Trueba (Madrid, 1955) made his debut with Ópera prima (1980), the film revitalized Spanish comedy, garnered awards at the Venice and Chicago festivals, and achieved great box-office success. This marked the beginning of a long career filled with triumphs. El año de las luces (1986) Trueba won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Festival and the first of numerous Goya awards. In 1992, he received the Oscar© for Best Foreign Language Film with Belle Epoque (1992), which also won the Bafta and 9 Goya Awards. Chico & Rita (2010), his first animated film in collaboration with Javier Mariscal, once again took him to the Hollywood Academy Awards, and was the first Spanish film nominated for the Oscar© for Best Animated Film.

Filmography: Ópera prima (1980); El año de las luces (1986); Belle Epoque (1992); Chico & Rita (2010); The Artist and the Model (2012)

Javier Mariscal headshot

Javier Mariscal

Javier Mariscal (Valencia, 1950) first gained recognition in the 1970s for his cartoons. During the 1980s he stood out for his work in industrial design, with one of his most highly regarded pieces being the “Duplex” stool, created alongside his interior design for the Valencian Bar of the same name. In 2009 he held an exhibition of his work at the Design Museum in London, and released two monographs: Mariscal Drawing Life and Sketches. In 2010 he released the animated feature film Chico & Rita, directed by Fernando Trueba. His recent projects include a retrospective in Seoul, the graphic image for the La Mercè festivities in Barcelona, and the graphics, interior design, and sculptures for the Les Glòries shopping center.

Filmography: Chico & Rita (2010)

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

No Other Land

Dir. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor
96 min

Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Misericordia

Dir. Alain Guiraudie
103 min

Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

There's Still Tomorrow

Dir. Paola Cortellesi
118 min

A critical and box office sensation in Italy, Paola Cortellesi's triumphant directorial debut is the tale of a Roman housewife in 1946, who stands up against the routine sexist abuse she suffers. Funny, heartbreaking and inspiring.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Way, My Way

Dir. Bill Bennett
93 min

All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Stand

Dir. Christopher Auchter
95 min

This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Resident Orca

Dir. Sarah Sharkey Pearce & Simon Schneider
97 min

Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre