Berenice Bejo, the Oscar-nominated actor of ”The Artist” fame, will star in Spanish-language film ”The Movie Teller”.

BAFTA nominee Lone Scherfig, best known for ”An Education” starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard, will direct the movie based on Hernan Rivera Letelier’s novel.

Also starring two-time Goya winner Antonio de la Torre, ”The Movie Teller” follows the story of life in a mining town in Chile’s Atacama Desert, reported Variety.

Walter Salles, a BAFTA winner, and Rafa Russo have adapted Letelier’s book, which is a tribute to the inspirational power of cinema, reminiscent of ”Cinema Paradiso”.

Bejo stars as Maria Magnolia, a woman who defiantly chases her creative ambitions, despite the hardships of life in the harsh yet beautiful Atacama Desert during the 1960s. She inspires in her daughter Maria Margarita (played by newcomer Sara Becker) a passion for cinema and, in a town where many families are unable to afford tickets to the cinema, Maria Margarita soon becomes the resident ”movie teller”, retelling the stories of the movies only she has seen.

Scherfig said the movie is about the survival of one of the greatest human assets — expansive imagination and shared language.

”Fascination, knowledge, fear, anger, love and fun: ‘The Movie Teller’ is highly relevant, primarily in illuminating the life of a neglected child growing up in poverty, one child amongst hundreds of millions today.

”The movie also reflects the magic role of storytelling on the stage and on the big screen — as a window to the world, as a place of healing as well as a place that unites people,” she added.

The film is produced by Adolfo Blanco of A Contracorriente Films and Vincent Juillerat of Selenium Films and Al Tiro Films. Embankment Films is an executive producer, and co-represents Latin American rights with Latido Films.

Tim Haslam of Embankment Films described ”The Movie Teller” as ”an epic family story, set in an extraordinary environment”.

”For anyone in the audience, there is a bit of them in every single person in this story. It is highly relatable,” he said.

Carlos Conti is on board as production designer, with Fernando Velazquez as composer and Merce Paloma as costume designer.

”The Movie Teller” is expected to begin principal photography in the Atacama Desert in the first quarter of next year.

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