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What happens when an emotionally stranded young film worker becomes indispensable to one of the world’s biggest stars who may also be a murderer?
That collision drives “Copy” (“El participio del verbo oír”), Miguel Machetti’s
feature project, currently in development and produced by Ángeles L. Guerrero and Tina V. Mollá through Gelatina Películas. Selected for the ninth edition of Madrid film school ECAM’s prestigious Incubator, the project was also presented in ECAM Forum’s 2026 Films to Come strand.
The story follows Ramón, a film assistant reeling from a painful breakup, who begins working with Camille de Valois, a legendary French actress returning to cinema after two decades away following an accusation of murder.
“One of the most important themes to explore throughout the film was always the extraordinary within the absolute normality of everyday life,” Machetti told Variety. “Everyone has perhaps experienced a painful breakup, but what would it be like to face one alongside a living legend and potential serial killer?”
While everyone around Ramón obsesses over whether Camille actually committed the crime, Ramón becomes far more consumed by the attention she gives him.
“The fact that the most famous person in the world sees him, recognises him and, in many cases, depends on him, makes everything else fade into the background,” Machetti said.
That dependency also attracted Gelatina to the project. Founded in 2025 by Guerrero and Mollá, the young company see in “Copy” both an unconventional first feature and a story they hope will travel beyond its film-industry setting.
“You do not have to work for a major film star to recognise yourself in a toxic relationship from which you feel unable to escape,” the producers said. “Beneath its specific setting, ‘Copy’ speaks to something far more universal: the power dynamics, dependencies and contradictions that can shape our relationships with others and with ourselves.”
Those power imbalances extend to the film set. Machetti drew on years working in assistant direction, describing the industry as “an extremely hierarchical environment.”
The project is now entering its final stages of development, according to Gelatina, with international co-production a priority. The producers are particularly looking toward France and Belgium and envision Camille being played by an established French or Italian actress opposite a largely unknown actor as Ramón.
“This echoes the central dynamic of the film itself: a young outsider suddenly sharing the screen with an established star,” they said. “The casting becomes an extension of the story, allowing fiction and reality to subtly mirror one another.”
Filmmakers out of the incubator have included Jaione Camborda (“The Rye Horn”), Estibaliz Urresola (“20,000 Species of Bees,”) and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (“Lullaby,” “Sundays.”)
For Machetti, even the title crystallizes the hierarchy. “Copy” is Ramón’s habitual radio response.
“It is perhaps the word he says most often throughout the day,” he said, “through a device that seems like an extension of his own body, and through which he only receives orders that he has to carry out.”
