03/05/2022 - Ione Atenea's sophisticated second film makes you want to play-act again, like we did when we were kids

Lately several audiovisual works have based their plots around found or inherited material. For example, the short film Una historia para los Modlins, by Sergio Oskman, winner of a Goya in 2012; My Mexican Bretzel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nuria Giménez
film profile], by Nuria Giménez Lorang; and Journey to Somewhere [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Helena de Llanos
film profile], by Helena de Llanos. Now another film, Los caballos mueren al amanecer [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ione Atenea
film profile], joins this trend in documentary (in a manner of speaking) film. Its director, co-writer (with editor Diana Toucedo) and camerawoman is Ione Atenea, who made her feature debut with Enero [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (a film based on her grandmothers) and who has had success in the Panorama Spain section of the 21st edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival with this film focusing on the life of the García siblings.

In this family’s home, Athena has created her own family, and by confronting the former with the present, she has captured in Los caballos mueren al amanecer not only the passing of time but has also revived the García's story. A story that was condemned to be lost like tears in the rain if the filmmaker had not made it into this tender and surprising piece of cinematic craftwork. She organised, researched and refined the archives found there: from magazines to cassette tape recordings, as well as photographs, personal items, letters, dolls, furniture, writings and, above all, recordings of the films that Rosa, Antonio (who worked for the former Bruguera publishing house) and Juan recreated for their own amusement.

Because as adults, these three siblings, dressed in space suits, and cowboy and gangster costumes, acted out their own versions of films from these genres, with plenty of enthusiasm, energy and audacity. Many of these performances open, close and illustrate the portrait that Atenea depicts in her film of this Barcelona family that was able to escape social limitations with fantasy.

And with her voice-over the filmmaker fills in the gaps in information with her own ideas, making this feature film an affectionate and respectful ode to anonymous artistic talent, to creative freedom and to the power of imagination to reach beyond the walls of a house or an existence enclosed by a political dictatorship and a patriarchal society.

A home now occupied by the family (with similar concerns) of the filmmaker, who has demonstrated a sensitivity to resurrect some fascinating people who seemed condemned to an unjust oblivion. Atenea becomes the spontaneous and voluntary heir, not only of the material, but also, with this film, a continuation of the "play-acting" that the García siblings took to limits worthy of the big screen.

Los caballos mueren al amanecer, which opened last year’s Punto de Vista festival and will be screened this weekend at D’A in Barcelona, is a production by Hiruki Filmak and Zazpi T’erdi.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)