Spain Magnified: Catalonia

The 10th annual Cinematik film festival will introduce its visitors to booming and award-winning, yet still a bit overlooked Catalan cinema, which currently takes pride in a strong generation of filmmakers. More than 20 movies in 3 sections devoted to the region will be featured – movies with high appreciation, interesting debuts, genre movies, and Jamie Rosales’ retrospective.

The Contemporary Catalan Cinema will present a representative selection of nine outstanding personalities of this Spanish region, many of which have been awarded prizes at major festivals. Among others, the selection includes Augustí Vila, winner of Karlovy Vary IFF; Isaki Lacuesta, winner of San Sebastian IFF; Sergio Caballero, already known to Cinematik visitors and winner of IFF Rotterdam; as well Albert Serra, enfant terrible of Catalan cinema and holder of the Golden Leopard from Locarno IFF. As Cinematik is eager to search for pearls in the waters of young cinema, the section programme also includes three strong debutes, among them the film La Plaga by Neus Ballús which, by mixing fiction with documentary, charmed the visitors at Berlinale and many other festivals.

Even the popular section Cult & Beyond is dressed in Catalan colours and will screen films full of the Spanish style thrill, among them the award-winning Black Bread, Sleep Tight, and the iconic REC.

The icing on the cake is retrospective section Respect dedicated to director Jaime Rosales, who will come to Piešťany to introduce his movies and talk with the audience on his masterclass. Moreover, Rosales got carte blanche to pick the movies he was influenced by the most. He was labeled as follower of Robert Bresson by many critics, so festival attendees will have a chance to see milestones of cinematography as Bresson’s Pickpocket, Viridiana by Buñuel, or Summer with Monika by Bergman.

The section Spain Magnified: Catalonia is organized in cooperation with the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain, Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Catalan Films & TV.

Movies at section Respect: Jamie Rosales:

• The Hours of the Day (Las horas del día; 2003)
• Solitary Fragments (La soledad; 2007)
• Bullet in the Head (Tiro en la cabeza; 2008)
• Dream and Silence (Sueño y silencio; 2012)
• Beautiful Youth (Hermosa juventud; 2014)

Jaime Rosales carte blanche movies:

• Summer with Monika (Sommaren med Monika; d. Ingmar Bergman)
• Viridiana (d. Luis Buñuel)
• Pickpocket (d. Robert Bresson)
• Ivan’s Childhood (d. Andrei Tarkovsky)

Contemporary Catalonian movies:

• The Long Way Home (El camí més llarg per tornar a casa; d. Sergi Pérez)
• Elisa K (d. Jordi Cadena, Judith Colell)
• Little Indi (Petit indi; d. Marc Recha)
• The Mosquito Net (La mosquitera; d. Agustí Vila)
• The Plague (La plaga; d. Neus Ballús)
• The Condemned (Los condenados; d. Isaki Lacuesta)
• Story of my Death (Història de la meva mort; d. Albert Serra)
• Death in La Alcarrii (La muerte en La Alcarria; d. Fernando Pomares)
• The Distance (La distancia; d. Sergio Caballero)

Cult & Beyond movies:

• Black Bread (Pa negre; d. Agustí Villaronga)
• Sleep Tight (Mientras duermes; d. Jaume Balagueró)
• The Last Days (Los últimos días; d. Àlex Pastor, David Pastor)
• [Rec] (d. Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza)
• [Rec] 2 (d. Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza)
• REC 3: Genesis ([REC]³: Génesis; d. Paco Plaza)
• [REC] 4: Apocalypse ([REC] 4: Apocalipsis; d. Jaume Balagueró)