A HYBRID version of a popular silver screen event returns to Scotland when the Catalan Film Festival responds in its own way to what has been an exceptionally challenging year, bringing Mediterranean vibes to Scotland’s local cinemas and households.
It will run online from November 19 to December 6, featuring some of Catalonia’s most successful films which have seen success at prestigious world festivals including Berlinale, IFFR Rotterdam, New York Film Festival, Viennale and the Centre Pompidou’s Cinémas du Réel Festival.
Most of those coming to Scotland share a common theme in the recovery and reconstruction of recent Catalan, Spanish and European historic memory, presenting a political and social memory of the territories’ modern history.
The festival also includes what is described as “films of outstanding beauty to clean the audience’s gaze by bringing peace and harmony to our troubled, unsettled 2020”.
Malaga Film Festival winner Schoolgirls, by Pilar Palomero, is among the Catalan features selection and offers a portrait of women growing up in the “ever-contradictory” Spain of the 1990s.
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My Mexican Bretzel, by Núria Giménez Lorang, also makes an appearance after winning the IFFR Rotterdam Found Footage Award. It is described by the Scottish festival organiser CinemaAttic as “the cinematic discovery of the year. A film that is balsam for the eyes and the soul, with images of painstaking beauty”.
Other critically-acclaimed titles focusing on Spain’s troubled recent past are the animated feature Josep – based on the life of Catalan artist Josep Bartolí – a soldier against Franco who escaped the concentration camps in France.
Perhaps the most politically poignant is the multi-award-winning The Year of the Discovery by Luis López Carrasco, which soaks up some of the anxieties in the world today – from Brexit to the rise of the alt-right, from the fate of trade unions to the reality behind Spain’s transition to democracy.
The online festival hub on FesthomeTV will offer a range of events including Q&A sessions, lectures and in-depth conversations, as well as special retrospectives looking at contemporary Catalan cinema.
Among the venues hosting in-person screenings are Glasgow Film Theatre, Dundee Contemporary Arts and the Institut Francais cinema in Edinburgh, all subject to their reopening over the coming weeks.
One movie that will appeal to art lovers is the UK premiere of the documentary Jaume Plensa: Can You Hear Me? which follows the prestigious Catalan sculptor of the same name.
This was made in collaboration with the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), whose collections curator Sandy Wood will set it in context, along with Scottish sculptor Kenny Hunter.
The RSA was the first institution in the UK to show Plensa’s work back in 1992.
READ MORE: Clara Ponsati: Why Scotland should be worried by the EU’s silence on Catalonia
One section of the festival is dedicated to Catalan classics, including the brutal cult, anti-Francoist Lejos de los Árboles (Far From The Trees) by Jacinto Esteva, as well as a retrospective of the women leading the new wave of contemporary Catalan cinema – among them Belén Funes, Pilar Palomero, Laura Ferrés and Carla Simón.
CinemaAttic is riding a wave of success at the moment after being nominated at the Creative Edinburgh Awards 2020 for their commitment to offering diverse culture online during the lockdown. However, they admit it has been “the most challenging year to offer culture and survive”.
The collective said: “We want people to escape somewhere else (at least for a bit), to feel the soft salty breeze of the Mediterranean without leaving their homes.
“The perfect antidote to the impossibility of flying out for a holiday this year.
“We offer a collection of films that will let audiences travel around the world without moving from their living room, from the Rocky Mountains to the Greek Islands, from Majorca beaches to the Swiss Alps, from the Catalan cities to small Spanish villages.”
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