06/02/2024 - The first feature by Spanish director Macu Machín is a film about ghosts, family reconciliations and a long dormant volcano that seems to be awaken

After 20 years, Elsa and her younger sister, Maura, return to the house where they were raised. Carmen, the third sister, lives there alone and maintains the family’s meagre estates. Maura’s degenerative disease continues unabated, while Elsa and Carmen try to finally settle the distribution of their parents’ inheritance. Between almond harvests and never-ending arguments, old conflicts surface and seem to awaken a long dormant volcano.

This is the synopsis of The Undergrowth [+see also:
film review
interview: Macu Machín
film profile], the first feature by Spanish director Macu Machín, which has been selected for the Forum section of the 74th Berlinale, which will unspool from 15 to 25 February.

The Canarian filmmaker has moved from observational cinema (Geometría de invierno) to found footage (Quemar las naves), with a consistent desire to, simultaneously, capture the real and the transcendent (El mar inmóvil). Now collaborating with El Viaje Films, she takes on her first feature film, centered on the unique universe of her own family and the lands they inhabit.

According to Machín, "the women in my family have difficulty in expressing their innermost feelings, in relating to the world around them. The hard life in the countryside made them tough like the bark of trees and their children had to learn from their silences. Origin, memory, roots. Our inheritance is in their hands and it is up to me to build my story with what remains of my ancestors and those of others who were persecuted after the Spanish Civil War and who rest in the mountain that surrounds our house."

The Undergrowth is produced by José Alayón, José M. Viña, Jamie Weiss and Jairo López for El Viaje Films. Croatia's Split Screen is handling international sales.

The poster is made by artist and filmmaker Génesis Valenzuela, who had previously designed the poster for Manuel Muñoz Rivas' short film Aqueronte. Check it below:

(Translated from Spanish)