Monkey business: 'Sunlight,' filmed in NM, makes its US premiere at the Santa Fe International Film Festival

Who knew hiding behind a monkey suit would be the catalyst to finding love.

Such is the case for Jane, who finds a strong new voice, within her fur covered monkey suit, while finding love with Roy, played by Shenoah Allen, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Nina Conti, who also directed the film and is the voice for the character Jane.

The film makes its U.S. debut at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, at the New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Ave., in Santa Fe, as part of the Santa Fe International Film Festival that runs through Sunday, Oct. 20. Executive producer, Christopher Guest, will be in attendance.

"So the film is a love story between a man who has really lost his way, and this woman, who's also lost her way, and she works in a monkey suit," said Conti. "She takes on a different persona in that monkey suit. They both kind of escaped their lives, but it's a love story between a man and woman who doesn't want to come out of this monkey suit. If you imagine that you're able to hide in something and lose your identity completely, like give it over to a much stronger kind of outspoken, uncensored part of yourself, but then you fall in love when you're in there, it's pretty hard to come out, because you'll be a disappointment. You're not the thing that you've dressed up as."

Jane is escaping a controlling relationship with her deceased mother's young boy toy husband. Together she and Roy make a plan to dig up the grave of Roy's worthless father to retrieve his watch in hopes it will fund a new life for the couple.

The monkey came into play from a little puppet that Conti has worked with during her career as a ventriloquist. Conti had a small part in a Star Wars film and although her part did not make the final cut, she met the "creature department" working on the movie.

"I've worked with a little puppet all my life, but I wanted to know if they could make this little hand puppet full size," she explained. "These were the people that make all these huge, incredible creatures, and so they did. They upscaled this little monkey that I've been talking to for 20 years into a full size guy."

Conti said the monkey suit was ideal for her role in "Sunlight," which is her first narrative feature film

"It was amazing because then I could disappear into the character that I knew so well and I could leave myself behind," she explained. "And I've only really ever found myself a bit of, I don't know, excess baggage to the act, because I stand there sort of smiling or apologizing for what the monkey said... So, I actually did experience that feeling of wanting to disappear inside the suit. And I thought talking with Shenoah, when I was in the suit, monkey and Shenoah had a great chemistry."

'Sunlight' was filmed in New Mexico, which was a coming home of sorts for Allen, who grew up in Albuquerque. Allen, who is a La Cueva High School alum, was part of Albuquerque's local theater and comedy scene for many years.

"This film is very much something of Nina and I's minds and so New Mexico felt like a good home for it because it felt like it was a place where strange creativity can really flourish, and this is a very offbeat movie," he said.