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BERLINALE 2014 Spain

Gabriel Velazquez goes from Artico to the snowy Pyrenees

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- The Salamanca-born director will present his fourth feature length film in Berlin as he films his latest piece of work, Analisis de sangre azul together with Blanca Torres

Gabriel Velazquez goes from Artico to the snowy Pyrenees
Ártico, de Gabriel Velázquez

Gabriel Velazquez, together with his fourth feature length film, will be a part of the 64th Berlinale. The film in question, Artico, will be a part of the Generation selection, where it will enjoy its worldwide premiere, ahead of its Spanish release this spring. Because of its independent nature, the festival circuit will be the film’s natural habitat, for which the Berlin stage will be the ideal launching pad.

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Artico, written by Velazquez, together with Carlos Unamuno, Manuel Garcia and Blanca Torres, stars Jota (Victor Garcia) and Simon (Juanlu Sevillano), two young hustlers who hit the streets every day to find ways to make ends meet. But beyond their everyday adventures, something is amiss inside both of them. Each desires something neither has. Simon wants freedom. He is tired of living among his own family, including a wife and son. Jota is fed up with being alone and desperately wants a family. In the mean time, every time they meet, they feel like Robin Hoods and think they have nothing to lose.

The production, which cost a modest €300,000, brings Velazquez’ trilogy on family versus solitude to a close. The two previous films were Amateurs (2008) and Iceberg [+see also:
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(2011). “An internal fight,” according to the director between opposite impulses. Artico also pays homage to a particular type of Spanish cinema from the 1980s, which drew attention towards a problem that had gone unnoticed up until then, such as youth delinquency.

The announcement of Velazquez film being selected for the prestigious German festival caught him at a busy time. Filming for a new film, Analisis de sangre azul, kicked off on January 20. The film is set in the Pyrenees mountains and is being directed together with faithful screenwriter and editor Blanca Torres. Through the skeleton of an aristocrat dispersed in the 1930s, the film will take a physical and spiritual look at the region. 

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(Translated from Spanish)

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