09/10/2025 - The Galician filmmaker will premiere this intimate drama featuring identity at its core at the Gijón International Film Festival, a decade on from The High Pressures

After debuting in 2012 with the feature Dos fragmentos/Eva and presenting The High Pressures [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ángel Santos
film profile] (2014) at Busan and Seville, where it won the New Waves Award, Ángel Santos had not directed another feature. Now, at last, the Galician filmmaker will world-premiere And So the Night Fell in the Albar International Competition of the Gijón International Film Festival, which takes place in the Asturian city from 12-22 November.

The movie stars Denís Gómez (seen in titles such as Código Emperador [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Boreal [+see also:
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interview: Pelayo Muñiz Cabal
film profile], and in series like The Neighbor [+see also:
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series profile]) and Violeta Gil (appearing in Las tierras del cielo and Manticore [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Vermut
film profile]), who previously toplined the 2021 short Así vendrá la noche. It follows Pablo, a sculptor who sets up his studio in a remote rural area on the Galician coast and gradually withdraws from his surroundings, cutting off all contact with friends and family. When his former lover Andrea seeks him out, she prompts Pablo to reflect on his urge to isolate himself and on the draw of a new escape.

Shot in Galicia, this intimate drama places identity at its core, as Santos explores themes such as relationships between couples, the need to sever ties with the past and the temptation to disappear. “The starting point of this project is the desire to probe the notion of identity and the need for disconnection brought about by today’s hyperconnected societies,” the filmmaker explains. “The effort to be oneself is weighed against the temptation to let go, to stop being – a questioning of one’s own identity that can lead to an extreme assertion of the right to silence or to withdraw,” he concludes.

After The High Pressures, Santos embarked on a professional period focused on film education (with the project Cine en curso, which featured leading audiovisual figures such as Carla Simón, Jonás Trueba, Meritxell Colell and Celia Rico) and on festival programming (Novos Cinemas – International Film Festival of Pontevedra). These experiences also allowed him to grow as a filmmaker until, in 2020, he decided to refocus on directing, channelling his efforts into bringing his third feature into the world. His credits also include work as a screenwriter (The Wild Season [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and as a producer (Gods of Stone [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Iván Castiñeiras and Las tierras del cielo by Pablo García Canga).

And So the Night Fell is being produced by Alfonso Zarauza for Maruxiña Film Co, Ángel Santos for Amateurfilms and Daniel Froiz for Matriuska Producciones. The executive producers are Andrea Vázquez and Analía G Alonso. The film is backed by AGADIC Xunta de Galicia, CRTVG and the Pontevedra Provincial Council.

(Translated from Spanish)