From what place can we speak today about contemporary Spanish cinema? Beyond the nationality of each filmmaker, the place of production or filming, the films belong to the imaginary country of cinema. However, just as not all writing is literature, not every film is cinema. So, where do we set the compass to understand what it means to speak of a cinema that comes from Spain?
These seven films (three shorts and four feature films) engage in dialogue with each other through the intimate and unbreakable bond they maintain with their characters. The need to hold their hand when they cry and to hold their hair back when they vomit. The same goes for giving them space to scream and lose themselves. Because, deep down, that is what every human being needs. To have the chance to be who they really are. Filmmakers too. And viewers as well.
It is clear that in all these visions, there is also conflict, there is also violence. However, it is important, even in cinema, not to get too carried away by it or to draw exalted mythologies in its honor. Cinema must be able to serve as a safe space for all beings who inhabit it. To explore and get lost, but always being able to reconnect with the body, from the comfort of the armchair. To be moved by passing through anxieties, anguish, and screams, but always from the most honest and benevolent place possible.
Fortunately, we can celebrate several Spanish films made by filmmakers. These are not filmmakers who merely execute and transpose concepts onto the screen. The filmmakers we present here embrace uncertainty, and consequently, also embrace cinematography. Each with their own approach. And it is stimulating to see what they propose because what they offer are not participles, but gerunds. In each of these films, there is also a glimpse of the promise of what is to come.
Although canonical categories may simplify the task, I choose not to follow that shortcut. On the surface of these seven films, one might read the words fiction, documentary, or film essay. But everything is more complex, everything is more intriguing than that. Each of these films is marked by detours and digressions that lead them through different layers. It is precisely these mysteries that promote these films as living organisms.
It is curious that this contemporary cinema increasingly seeks to find a foothold to contemplate life. The need to find a reflection, each in the prism of their own mirror, to distance themselves from life and be able to look. After all.
Perhaps the key to everything lies there, in finding a kind of chaos that allows us to achieve freedom. Perhaps Spain is the pretext, perhaps Spain is the possible vertex on which this cinema in motion is sustained.
A nuestros amigos, Adrián Orr
Spain, Portugal, DOC, 2024, 90'
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For Here Am I Sitting In A Tin Can Far Above The World, Gala Hernández López
France, DOC, 2024, 19'
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La Hojarasca, Macu Machín
Spain, DOC, 2024, 72'
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La Parra, Alberto Gracia
Spain, DOC, 2024, 90'
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Las Novias Del Sur, Elena López Riera
Spain, Switzerland, DOC, 2023, 39'
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Strata Incognita, Jorge Valiente Oriol, Amaia Sánchez-Velasco, Romea Muryn, Francisco Lobo
Portugal, Spain, DOC, 2024, 16
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