LONG LIVE LIFE! LONG LIVE THE KING!
Roy Andersson and Teatro del Barrio will be the protagonists today of the #15FestivalSevilla. After receiving his Honorary Giraldillo during the opening gala, the Swedish filmmaker will today be present in the Nervión cinemes with free admission for all those who wish to listen, and talk, to the director of the side-splitting and bitter Trilogy of Life (‘Songs from the Second Floor’, ‘You, the Living’ and ‘A Pigeon Sat on a Branch reflecting on Existence'). Also deserving of one of the retrospectives this year, today two of his lesser known films will be shown in an evening session: the short film ‘To Fetch a Bike’ and the medium length film ‘Saturday October 5th’.
One of the most awaited films in the #15FestivalSevilla is 'El Rey': an adaptation of the homonymous play produced by Teatro del Barrio, its film version is directed by its author, Alberto San Juan (along with the director of photography Valentín Álvarez), and it has Luis Bermejo, Willy Toledo and San Juan himself as protagonists of a devastating portrait of the role of the monarch in the Spanish Transition. The film, part of the Endless Revolutions section, will be seen in the afternoon in the Nervión Cinemas and afterwards there will be a talk with the team which promises to be meaty.
More screenings with talks
Seeing a film and talking with its director, one of the identifying features of the Seville Festival, will bring to the Nervión cinemea directors such as Sergei Loznitsa, Nicolas Philibert, Jean-Bernard Marlin, Trevor Hardy, Mia Hansen-Løve, Sara Fattahi, Ángel Haro, Hernán Zin, Jesús Armesto, Richard Billingham, Anne Alix, Dídio Pestana, Jesús Ponce and Samuel Alarcón.
With 'Donbass', a film in the Official Section which arrives with the guarantee of the Best Director Award at Un Certain Regard in the Cannes Festival, Sergei Loznitsa turns the spotlight on the conflict between supporters of Putin and Ukrainian nationalists, starting from a series of home videos recreated by the director for a particular look at the political reality in his country.
The Official Section also offers 'Maya', a chronicle of the particular connection that is formed between a journalist recently freed after being held hostage in Syria and a young girl he meets on an introspective journey to India. After the screening, its director, Mia Hansen-Løve, will talk to the audience. The prestigious photographer, Richard Billingham, will do the same after the screening of his first feature film 'Ray & Liz': an autobiographical look at a childhood less happy that he would like to remember, which won the Special Jury Award at the Locarno Festival.
Defending the New Waves sections, Nicolas Philibert (director of the unforgettable ‘Être et avoir’) will reflect with the spectators on 'De chaque instant', a documentary which follows a group of nursing students on their day to day routines. Sara Fattahi will share her experiences and viewpoint on the conflict in Siria, leitmotif of the film 'Chaos'. The latest winner of the Jean Vigo award, Jean-Bernard Marlin, will share the reactions of those who see 'Shéhérazade', the story of a first love in a setting of violence and marginalisation. And after the screening of 'Something is Happening', the director Anne Alix and its protagonist Lola Dueñas will talk with the public about this luminous road movie that takes two women on a journey through Provence.
The Portuguese Dídio Pestana will also pass through the Nervión to recount his experience with the shooting of 'Sobre tudo sobre nada', a film in Endless Revolutions that is a diary filmed by the director about his personal and work comings and goings between Lisbon, Berlin and other European cities.
Trevor Hardy will talk with parents and children who come to the screening of 'Strike', a film in stop-motion animation about a mole who dreams of being a success in the world of football. A film from the Europa Junior section particularly aimed at the younger audiences.
The other Spanish cinema
A documentary that reflects the dangerous work by war reporters; 'Morir para contar' will be shown and followed by a talk with its director, Hernán Zin, with wide experience reporting on wars. Samuel Alaracón will talk about the disappearance of Goya’s skull, motive of his fascinating fílmic essay 'Oscuro y lucientes'.
Committed to its talent and production, the Seville Festival offers three screenings followed by talks from the Andalusian Panorama: Ángel Haro will talk about 'T R Y', the result of the adventure with a group of young people from Almeria who filmed in New York, in record time and with a very limited budget, the reunion of two friends from adolescence in the Big Apple. Jesús Ponce will present 'La primera cita', a story of love and redemption about a marriage marked by the woman’s illness. And Jesús Armesto will tell of his experience filming in The Jungle, an enormous refugee camp, and rebelling against the media misinformation about one of the greatest humanitarian crises in recent times, in 'Los burgueses de Calais, la última frontera'.
Three Spanish films will be shown today in Special Screening without a talk: 'El desentierro', by Nacho Ruipérez, is an atmospheric thriller set in the rice fields of Levante, with Leonardo Sbaraglia as protagonist. Dani Rovira sponsors 'Todos los caminos', by Paola García Costas, and gets on a bicycle to travel from Barcelona to the Vatican in order to encourage research into Rett Syndrome. And Elías León Siminiani directs 'Apuntes para una película de atracos', in which he takes his passion for films about robberies to his daily life, telling about the relationship he established with a thief, the so-called Robin Hood of Vallecas.
Films and music
The immeasurable offer proposed by #15FestivalSevilla for today includes five titles from the EFA Selection: 'Woman at War' is a teacher who hides her double life as an eco-terrorist and whose reality is upended when she is allowed to adopt a Ukrainian girl... a powerful character for the new film from Benedikt Erlingsson ('Of Horses and Men'). 'Beast', by Michael Pearce, is a dark tale of love and murders. 'Michael Inside', by Frank Berry, backed up by its tremendous success in Ireland, tells the story of a young man marked by a father who is in prison and who also has to face a prison sentence. In the luminous, nostalgic 'Leto - Summer', Kirill Serebrennikov takes us to the tumultuous 80s in Leningrad where a group of young people discover rock at the height of the Soviet thaw. And 'Scary Mother', the first film by Ana Urushadze, which won awards at Locarno and Sarajevo, moves between realist drama about the (presumed) obligations that society imposes on women and very black comedy.
Other films to be shown today are: 'Amin' (Official Section Out of Competition), by Philippe Faucon, with Emmanuelle Devos (City of Seville award in this edition) as a nurse who meets with a Senegalese immigrant. 'Two for Joy' (Special Screening), by Tom Beard, with Samantha Morton as a mother sunk in depression, unable to look after her two children.
Today screenings will begin of the retrospectives dedicated to the German Ula Stöckl and the Hungarian Ildikó Enyedi. Of the former, we can see her first short film 'Antigone', and the feature 'The Cat Has Nine Lives', considered the first feminist film in the history of West Germany. Or the latter, we will see 'Mole'.
And fans of short films will also have three different sessions available: the third of Short Matters!, Monocromía (a special section made up of animated shorts in black and white, little works of art), and those accompanying the screening of 'Ernest and Célestine in Winter', mini-treasures for children under three, a beautiful initiative for educating children in the world of cinema from the cradle.
And, beyond the cinema seats, music takes over and offers the performance by Texxcoco + DJ Tali Carreto. At 00:30h in Sala X.