‘Mu-ki-ra,’ From Colombian Creative Powerhouse Estefanía Piñeres Duque and ‘Decorado’ Producer Chelo Loureiro, Brought…

“Mu-Ki-Ra,” from Colombian creative powerhouse Estefania Pineres Duque and Spain’s Ábano Producions, producer of Annecy winner “Decorado,” will be brought to market by Latido Films at Locarno.

An animated musical adventure about diversity, empathy and the power to turn fear into friendship, “Mu-Ki-ra” was selected for Cannes’ 2024 Annecy Animation Showcase, one of the most prestigious lineups on the animation calendar. The now completed “Mu-ki-ra” will screen in August at Locarno Kids, fast emerging as a Locarno Festival sidebar which also drives an ever larger part of the fest’s business dealings.

Clear political allegory, in “Mu-ki-ra,” Cleo, 13, and her little brother Martín, live in a world plagued by monsters that attack at night. When Martín is kidnapped by a monster, Cleo ventures into the jungle to rescue him, aided by an elderly witch and a naughty anteater. Along the way, Cleo discovers that the monsters’ aren’t as monstrous as most everyone thinks.

Speaking to Variety before the Cannes Marché du Film’s Annecy Animation Showcase, Piñeres said the film is “inspired by Latin American childhood experiences, which are often immersed in complex environments,” adding: “It wishes to be a celebration of their light and a reflection upon their darkness.”

She added that her goal with “Mu-Ki-Ra” was “to create a tale that has its own voice, representing its background but also to find a way to comment on it through its music and visual universe rather than just portraying it. Hopefully, it will connect with children who live in similar contexts through hope.

Best known as the star of Netflix psychological family thriller “Delirio,” Piñeres Duque has also served as a writer on “Palace” and a story editor on “En diciembre llegaban las Brisas,” two of the biggest plays on Netflix’s 2026 production slate as it embraces the work of key young Colombian creatives.

Based out of Galicia, northwest Spain, Ábano Producions is headed by Chelo Loureiro, a five-time Spanish Academy Goya winner for “Valentina, which she directed, and titles from Alberto Vázquez such as “Decorado,” the feature and the short,” and “Unicorn Wars.”

“’Mu-ki-ra’ is a more than delightful, exquisite and beautifully crafted all family film, which intelligently presents that sometimes the ‘others’ and the ‘different’ are precisely the parts of us that we miss,” Latido Films head Antonio Saura told Variety. “We hope that everyone that watches this film will experience the joy and fascination we had when we were lucky to be chosen by the producers to represent it.”

Stills from “Mu-ki-ra” show its combination of quaint, picturesque 2D, and a more explosive mix of vibrant Caribbean tropical tones.

Ábano and Colombian producer Letrario, headed by Alejandro Zapata, dropped a trailer earlier this year in which Cleo is seen venturing into a trippy forest world teeming with colorful critters, where she discovers she’ll have just three nights to track down her missing brother. Confronting a frightening forest creature for the first time, she learns that fear is in the eye of the beholder.

At the trailer’s conclusion, a musical number teaches Cleo an important lesson in empathy and tolerance, with the forest creatures singing: “Beneath the disguise, beyond your skin or voice, you’re part of me, we are the same song.”

Here’s the trailer: