15/01/2007

Oscar nominee Javier Bardem and the NGO Doctors Without Borders (DWB) have backed a film composed of five short documentaries directed by Isabel Coixet, Mariano Barroso, Fernando León de Aranoa, Javier Corcuera and Wim Wenders.

Entitled Los Invisibles (lit. "The Invisible Ones"), the film focuses on social issues that DWB faces in its work in critical areas around the globe and which were published in the annual report of the NGO, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary.

No newcomer to socio-political projects, Catalan director Coixet (The Secret Life of Words [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile]) focused her film on the Chagas illness in Bolivia, whereas Barroso (Hormingas en la boca) opted deal with narcolepsy in a film set both in Central Africa Republic and Madrid.

These two episodes are fictional though based on true events, while the three other projects are documentaries in the purest sense. León de Aranoa's short is on Uganda's civil instability, Corcuera films the victims of the conflicts in Colombia and Wenders focuses on cases of sexual harassment in Congo.

Produced by the Bardem, Pinguin Films, Reposado Producciones and Doctors Without Borders, with €200,000 in support from the Region of Castilla y León, Los Invisibles is set to open late February in Madrid, Barcelona and Valladolid and will later be broadcast by local public channel TVE.

Bardem has been collaborating with DWB for years and previously participated in a campaign about NGO work in Ethiopia, which ended up being seen on the big screen as a complement to Amenabar's Oscar-winner film Mar Adentro [+see also:
trailer
film profile].