Private Project

upa! A Spring in Athens

After Argentina’s right-wing government cuts arts support and marginalizes artists and queer people, a broke producer, a canceled actor, and a depressed filmmaker reunite to scout a musical about Medea’s myth.
They join forces with an old associate, a Norwegian actress turned director.
The four travel to the Peloponnese, reviving old conflicts.
A comedy arises from Latin American desperation for art’s funding and a European colonialist seeking revenge.

  • Tamae Garateguy
    Director
  • Santiago Giralt
    Director
  • Camila Toker
    Director
  • Los Griegos Media
    Director
  • Santiago Giralt
    Writer
  • Tamae Garateguy
    Writer
  • Camila Toker
    Writer
  • Federico Carol
    Producer
  • Santiago Giralt
    Producer
  • Tamae Garateguy
    Producer
  • Camila Toker
    Producer
  • Camila Toker
    Key Cast
  • Tamae Garateguy
    Key Cast
  • Santiago Giralt
    Key Cast
  • Hildegunn Wærness
    Key Cast
  • Julio Rojas
    Key Cast
  • Beate Basso
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    upa! una primavera en Atenas
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    musical, comedy, political, LGBTQ, women
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    100,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Argentina
  • Country of Filming:
    Argentina, Greece, Norway
  • Language:
    English, Norwegian, Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Buenos AIres Independent Film Festival
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
    April 1, 2025
    World Premiere
    Opening Night
Director Biography - Tamae Garateguy, Santiago Giralt, Camila Toker, Los Griegos Media

Garateguy (1973, Argentina), Giralt (1977, Argentina) y Toker (1975, Argentina) codirigieron upa! una película argentina, ganadora de la Competencia Argentina del Bafici '07, y upa!
2: El regreso (Bafici '15), upa! una pandemia argentina Lado A+B (Bafici '21)
Garateguy (1973, Argentina), Giralt (1977, Argentina) and Toker (1975, Argentina) co-directed UPA! An Argentine Movie, winner of the Argentine Competition at Bafici '07, and UPA!
2: The Return (Bafici '15), upa! An Argentine pandemic Side A+B (Bafici '21)

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"We are a queer man and two women and together we’ve done four films in reaction to different moments in the evolution of Argentinean filmmaking, using humor and improvisation as the main tools.
In the year 2007, when we won BAFICI with our first film, Pawel Pawlikowski, who was part of the Jury, took us to the side of the stage and told us: “the movie is great but the most powerful aspect of it is the group energy that you transmit”. This idea has kept us together for the 20 years we’ve been working as a team, in a parallel road to our individual projects.
This time, we decided to do a portrait of the actual situation reflecting the budget cuts, the censorship and the marginalization of artists during Milei’s government. At the same time, we keep shooting the passing of time on our bodies and we believe there’s very few, if there are any, examples of movie sagas that combine guerrilla film production, micro budgeting and a film saga that already has 4 movies and 20 years in the making.
As a last note, our first review came out of Berlinale. Back in 2006, there was a WIP section with the magazine Haciendo Cine and we got our first positive review thanks to that."