Locarno 2024
Spain Country Focus at Locarno Pro
First Look
Teresa Pla, an intersex child assigned female at birth, struggles to be recognized as a man within the archaic Spanish society of the beginning and middle of the 20th century while he is persecuted by guerrillas, bandits and the Guardia Civil (Civil Guard).
Júlia fled to Glasgow to start anew, but years later, she's stuck. By day, she pursues photography; by night, she washes dishes. One afternoon, while photographing pedestrians, her eyes begin to fail. As illness spreads, Júlia delves into her past and that of the city, recalling a mysterious group that retrieved objects from the river, and Shubham, an Indian boy who, like her, came here for a new beginning.
1972: The Ecclesiastical Court of Santiago de Compostela convicted Sagrario Fra, a shellfish harvester in Ferrol, for committing adultery. At the time, many women were being imprisoned or locked up in a mental hospital for what is considered a female-specific criminal act. But Sagrario Fra experiences love as insubordination. Like the birds, flying between heaven and earth, Antigone is latent in Sagrario.
Mares takes the audience on an intimate and emotionally charged journey with director Ari (32), and her partner Anna (41), who want to have a child together. Anna is the first to begin assisted reproduction, whilst Ariadna captures every step with her camera.
Dream of Another Summer tells the story of the encounter between a woman collapsing and a city in ruins in order to explore how the spaces we inhabit relate to us, and to reflect on the mortality and survival of a city.
Distressed by the troubles and difficulties of life and death, ghosts and humans of the small town of La Mancha will do the impossible to put an end to their problems and will not hesitate to carry out extreme and desperate plans to achieve it.
Maria, a promising young writer and new mother, stumbles upon a chilling headline: a French woman has drowned her 10-month-old twins in the bathtub. The gruesome act seizes Maria's imagination, becoming an obsession. Why did she do it? From that moment onwards, the specter of infanticide looms over Maria's life as a haunting possibility.
Seville, summer of 1984. Rita and Lolo are brother and sister, 7 and 5 years old, who live at the heart of a humble, working-class family. Rita dreams of going to the beach, but at home, what her father says goes… always. For the first time, Rita starts to question why this is. She’s also starting to realise that her home is becoming less and less safe, especially for her mother.
Surrounded by social and political chaos in Lima during the summer of 1992, Lucia, Aurora, and their mother, Elena, plan to leave and seek opportunities in the United States. Their farewell involves reconnecting with their estranged father, Carlos, adding turbulence to the regrets, hopes, and fears of their emotional departure.
New Spanish Films Catalogue: Winter / Spring 2024
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The last romantics [Los últimos románticos] [Azken erromantikoak]
When a lump is detected in her breast, Irune plunges into an abyss that forces her to reconsider her entire existence.
A House On Fire [Una casa en flames]
Montse is thrilled about the weekend she gets to spend with the whole family at her house on the Costa Brava. Her divorce was long ago, her ex has a new partner, and her children are all grown up with lives of their own. No one pays much attention to her. But the weekend will be perfect… even if she has to burn everything to the ground to make it so.
A Bathroom of One’s Own [Un Bany Propi]
Antonia, an exemplary sixty-five-year-old housewife, has a strange secret: she is obsessed with bathrooms, the only place where she can say "busy" and people leave her alone. It is there that she gives free rein to her true vocation, that of a writer, and escapes from her monotonous life, forming strange friendships that make her friendly appearance dissolve like shit in the toilet.
MILA (11) faces the last days of life before the end of the world. While she struggles to understand the complexity of death, she also tries to keep her family together by holding a party that takes place on the very last day of life on earth.
A childhood tale [Cuento para la infancia]
A neighborhood faces one of the great problems of today's Europe, the coexistence of people from different origins. The impulse to move forward, mixed with an increasingly harsh daily life, will determine the possibility of a joint future or not.