14/11/2024 - We delve deeper into a clutch of intriguing Spanish projects going head to head for a €15,000 award after being pitched in Bilbao

On eres quan hi eres? by Jana Montllor

The seventh iteration of Zinebi Networking has just unspooled at AS Fabrik in Bilbao. Among other activities, it comprised one pitching competition for Basque projects (see the report) and another for national ones. In the latter, ten upcoming films in development or production were pitched to the members of the industry jury, who were tasked with choosing the recipient of a €15,000 award (see the news). Here, we take a closer look at five of the ten national projects that were pitched, and which appeared particularly promising.

On eres quan hi eres? - Jana Montllor
Producers: La Selva Ecosistema, Odessa Films, LaCima, Paulina Martinez
Jana Montllor is the daughter of late Valencian singer-songwriter and actor Ovidi Montllor, who passed away in 1995. In this documentary, she reconstructs a girl’s memories of her absent father, who confessed to being obsessed with his work over and above all else. With only 16 photos in existence of her and her father together, she examines why she has so few memories of him from her childhood. She plans to find a way to revisit and reinvent these photos as a personal archive. To fill in the gaps between her own recollections and the plentiful public memory of Ovidi, she will delve into public archives with a personal gaze that probes the boundaries between memory and imagination, and will talk to some of those who were closest to him. The film is currently in post-production, and the team is looking for sales agents, distributors and a festival premiere, as well as an innovative approach to make the work stand out at festivals.

Sempre insieme - Alberto Baldini
Producers: Mubox Studio, Nakarey Fernández Sornes
Another work stemming from loss and grief, Alberto Baldini’s documentary focuses on his mother, who took her own life, aged 39. However, the truth about her death was kept from Baldini until later in his life. The story is told through fragments of the letters that his parents wrote to each other when their romance was first blossoming in the 1990s, as well as from the point of view of various people: particularly his father and his aunt, the latter of whom eventually passed on a letter addressed to him, written by his mum before she died. The doc will revolve around the contrast between past and present, and between archive pictures and the director’s own images. The teaser trailer also showed two actors playing his parents, and Baldini explained that this will therefore make it a kind of fiction film infused with reality, exploring love, life, motherhood and mourning. A 70-minute version has been completed, with the final cut planned for spring 2025.

The Dutchbat by Guillermo Roqués, Rafael Honrubia and Javier Marín

The Dutchbat - Guillermo Roqués, Rafael Honrubia, Javier Marín (Spain/Netherlands)
Producers: 15L Films, Carlota Coloma
Co-producers: Silence Comunicación, near/by film, Basalt Film, TV3
A trio of directors is at the helm of this Spanish-Dutch co-production, which is at an intermediate stage with 60% of the financing in place. The team follows six veterans from the titular “Dutchbat”, the Dutch battalion under the command of the UN during operation UNPROFOR in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav Wars, as they return to Srebrenica and face their guilt for having failed to prevent the infamous 1995 massacre. The members of the group now suffer from PTSD as a result of their experiences, and the movie looks at how they felt when they returned home and how events like this influence the lives of those involved. Revisiting the site of the massacre and talking about it together is a form of catharsis, and the directors believe that filming this process is a way to send a direct message to people who are now on the front line of other wars, warning them what could happen to them in 30 years’ time. As one of the veterans says in the teaser trailer, “We were broken and they let us loose in society” – a chilling prospect indeed.

M - Iván Blanco
Producer: the BRBR collective (Raúl Liarte Conesa)
Madrilenian writer-director Iván Blanco centres his documentary on three members of his family, who are somehow together but still separated, living in different parts of the suburbs of Madrid. The M roads that encircle the city thus cut them off from the centre of the Spanish capital. This aspect lends the film a “circular logic”, according to Blanco, and it tells three circular stories about people reinventing themselves, always returning to the same starting point. His father, Pedro, has recently been sacked after 30 years behind the wheel of the same taxi, plunging him into an identity crisis; Iván’s brother Javi cannot live alone because of an accident, and the only place he can afford to buy with the compensation payout is a piece of land far from his family; and his mother, Marimar, has toiled hard all her life, but now just wants to dance, party and have fun, thus forging a new identity for herself. Each character is set to have a different soundscape to accompany them, and the story should be relatable to many people.

The Possibility of Man by Vanesa Abajo Pérez

The Possibility of Man - Vanesa Abajo Pérez
Producers: Tourmalet Films, Worldvisuals Film, Manuel Arango
Spanish-born, Dutch-raised director Vanesa Abajo Pérez’s intention is to infuse her documentary with hope, despite its subject matter suggesting darkness and tragedy. The film combines the 2021 volcanic eruption on the island of La Palma with the director’s tragic personal story of suffering a miscarriage. She travels to the island in the wake of the eruption to capture the hopes of a number of diverse individuals at a viewing point, called the Mirador El Time. These characters act as mirrors, gradually revealing Abajo Pérez’s personal story, which is further fleshed out through letters that she writes to her unborn son. She thus observes how human beings seek hope amid devastation, as she processes her own grief. Divided into three acts, the movie will feature different visual styles to reflect the diverse natures of the characters and what they are feeling, which is important because the director wants the viewer to experience this emotional journey as their own. Already at an advanced stage with the doc, the team is looking for sales agents and distributors.