- The competition includes Salvation by Emin Alper, winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlinale, and Until the Day Ends, the feature film debut of Serbian editor and documentary filmmaker Jelena Maksimović
- Brazilian playwright and actress Grace Passô makes her feature film debut with Our Secret, whilst Gabe Klinger and Jacqueline Lentzou present their second feature films, Isabel and A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, respectively
Eight new films complete the Meeting Point section of the 71st Valladolid International Film Festival, which will feature 18 titles. Filmmakers from Turkey, Algeria, Brazil, Serbia, Greece, the United States and France come together in a selection that spans very different career paths and creative moments, ranging from new works by Emin Alper and Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche to second feature films and debuts from the worlds of theatre, editing and short film. Intimate stories set against the backdrop of major collective conflicts coexist in a selection characterised by reflection on how the past continues to resonate in the tensions of the present.
Communities in Tension
Turkish filmmaker Emin Alper, whose body of work repeatedly explores power relations, violence and tensions within a community, returns to SEMINCI with Salvation. In a remote mountain village, the return of a clan expelled years earlier reignites a dispute over land. Alper constructs a parable about the mechanisms of collective hatred and the ease with which a community can turn fear into violence. The film won the Silver Bear – Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale.
A very different kind of conflict runs through Until the Day Ends, the first feature-length fiction film by Serbian documentary filmmaker and editor Jelena Maksimović. Lena, a student and anti-government activist, and Stefan, a young man close to government supporters, meet during the student protests that have rocked Serbia and, despite being on opposite sides, begin a relationship. Part romance, part road movie, Maksimović follows two young people as they try to escape the political and social roles that seem to have been assigned to them, in a city overtaken by the noise and energy of the streets.
Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, one of the most distinctive figures in French independent cinema, takes his new film, Route Algéricaine, to the Sahara Desert. Slimane, an ailing elderly lorry driver facing his final job, and Smaïn, his assistant, are attacked whilst transporting a load through southern Algeria. Following the attack, the journey through the desert gives rise to a series of unexpected encounters that take the film down paths as varied as adventure, the road movie and a portrait of a country, whilst never losing sight of brotherhood and mutual solidarity.
Time and Affection
Brazilian filmmaker André Novais Oliveira, who has made his family and everyday life a central theme of his films, once again works with his own family in If I Were Alive. Gilberto and Jacira have been together for almost five decades when her hospitalisation alters her husband’s perception of reality and creates a rift between the past and the present. Through the small gestures, glances, humour and arguments that have marked their life together, the film traces half a century of a relationship until it confronts the passage of time and the loss of memory. Conceived also as a tribute to his mother, the film stars, amongst others, his own father, Norberto Novais Oliveira, and the writer Conceição Evaristo.
Bérenger Thouin has devoted a decade of work to The Golden Age, his first feature film. Jeanne Lavaur, the daughter of butchers who dreams of becoming a countess, lives through much of the 20th century, amidst wars, love affairs and profound social upheavals. Thouin blends fictional scenes with family archives and Gaumont-Pathé newsreels, skilfully weaving his protagonist’s life into real-life images of the 20th century.
A leading figure in the Brazilian performing arts scene, the playwright, actress and director Grace Passô makes her feature film debut with Our Secret, an adaptation of her own play Amores surdos. A Black family tries to pull itself together following the death of the father, whilst each member copes with their grief in their own way. The focus is particularly on Tutu, the youngest brother, who begins to sense a mysterious presence in the house. Through this fantastical lens, the film explores the theme of loss without losing sight of the humour and the bonds that hold the family together.
Desire and New Beginnings
Filmmaker, critic and programmer Gabe Klinger, a member of the Alquimias jury at the 69th SEMINCI, returns to his native São Paulo with Isabel. Marina Person plays a sommelier at a haute cuisine restaurant who decides to leave her job to open her own wine bar. The film follows its protagonist as she attempts to start afresh, with all her doubts and missteps, in a warmly told story that also explores the possibility of rebuilding one’s life and taking the risk of shaping it on one’s own terms.
Jacqueline Lentzou, one of the leading directors of the new generation of European cinema, has developed a highly personal style based on associations, diaries, dreams and everyday gestures. Her second feature film, A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, turns its gaze towards adolescence through Jo, a 15-year-old girl driven by desire, imagination and an energy that is hard to contain. After missing the bus, she meets Phaedra, becomes fascinated by her, and the possibility of getting closer to this unconventional friend suddenly disrupts everything around her. Lentzou captures the intensity and bewilderment of youth through the body and thoughts of her protagonist, in a story also marked by absence and fragility.
These eight titles join the six international films already announced: Forest High, by Manon Coubia; Ben’imana, by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo; All The Lovers In The Night, by Yukiko Sode; Light Pillar, by Xu Zao; Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep, by Rakan Mayasi; and 9 Temples to Heaven, by Sompot Chidgasornpongse—as well as the Spanish films. A nadadora, by Sandra Sánchez; As augas, by Ledicia Sola; Cinemanía, by Marc Ferrer; and The Bitch Pack, by Claudia Estrada Tarascó.
- A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, de Jacqueline Lentzou
- Isabel, de Gabe Klinger
- Our Secret, de Grace Passô
- Route Algéricaine, de Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche
- Salvación, de Emin Alper
- Se eu fosse vivo… vivia, de André Novais Oliveira
- The Golden Age, de Bérenger Thouin
- Until the Day Ends, de Jelena Maksimović