Dynamism of Spanish cinema in the spotlight at Thessaloniki film fest
The dynamism of contemporary Spanish cinema is undisputed, but the problem in Greece is that we usually just get films by well-known directors or featuring famous actors. This year’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival, running from November 16-25, is striving to fill this void by introducing those filmmakers who have never made it to mainstream cinemas in this country. Organizers have prepared a package of 19 films (18 fiction and one documentary), which represent both auteur cinema and more commercially popular productions. Among them, for example, are Jaime Rosales’s «La Soledad» (Solitary Fragments), a 2007 production addressing the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings through the eyes of a struggling single mother and widow with three children. In the autobiographical «Dies d’agost» (August Days), Marc Recha takes his audience on a journey through the enchanting Catalan countryside and together with his brother, David, share their thoughts on life, nature and the past. In «Honor de cavalleria» (Honor of the Knights), Albert Serra draws from the aesthetic style of Henri-Cartier Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard and Yasujiro Ozu to create a minimalist take on Cervantes’s classic «Don Quixote.» The festival has also extended invitations to a number of Spanish directors and actors, among them award-winning actor Javier Bardem, one of the greatest new forces in Spanish cinema, who has also produced «Invisibles,» a documentary addressing the unsettled problems of this world and their victims, which will be screened during the tribute. The five-segment documentary is signed by five established directors – Mariano Barroso, Isabelle Coixet, Javier Corcuera, Fernando Leon de Aranoa and Wim Wenders. The festival participants will also be conducting master classes and open discussions with the public.
