The camera roams around a flat, before exiting through a door and ascending a staircase only to glimpse, off in the distance, the beautiful light and sweeping landscape of the freedom we all dream of: in the meantime, we’ve been listening to a monologue from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker. The action unfolds in Vigo, and the auteur behind it is none other than Galician artist Lois Patiño: his short is entitled El deseo más recóndito (lit. “The Most Remote Desire”), and together with those of another eight filmmakers – such as Belén Funes, who directed hers from her abode in Barcelona – it is an integral part of the so-called Postales filmadas (lit. “Filmed Postcards”), nine short films that make up the Cultura de salón (lit. “Living-room Culture”, an online programme being held during the lockdown) and which have been promoted by SACO – the Oviedo Contemporary Audiovisual Week. They are already available to watch, free of charge, on the festival’s website.

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The remainder of these postcards crafted from within self-isolation, which have running times of just a few minutes, were made by San Sebastián native Maider Fernández (hers is called Ama and is based on a text by Chantal Akerman included in the 1977 film News From Home), Portugal’s Pedro Neves (Have You Been Living on the Moon?), Gonzalo Tapia (La soledad del escritor), Juan Luis Ruiz (Mi confinamiento con Resnais), David Pantaleón (whose Plegar el espacio is based on David Lynch’s Dune, no less), Manuel Martín Cuenca (Qué suerte que tengo que, encerrado en casa, no puedo matar a nadie, which was shot in central Madrid, inspired by a dialogue in The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz by maestro Luis Buñuel) and Arantxa Aguirre, who filmed ¿Qué puedo hacer? in black and white from a window in her house, against a rainy backdrop, set to the sound of Anna Karina’s voice from the soundtrack to Pierrot le Fou.

“When we were in quarantine, the team behind the festival – which should have happened in April, but which will now end up taking place between 23 October and 1 November 2020 – thought about generating content so as to be able to offer it to the audience and thus keep in contact with the viewers. Thus, we first held live film-concerts with Asturian musicians, who composed soundtracks for short films by Buster Keaton and Segundo de Chomón,” explains Pablo de María, the director of SACO. “The next step was Postales filmadas, which consisted of inviting a clutch of filmmakers, whose movies have taken part in the festival here in Oviedo in the last few years, to regale us with their vision of the confinement brought on by the coronavirus crisis. Creative as they are, they have produced some fabulous results that go far beyond how the situation is affecting them, incorporating many layers and inviting various ways of being perceived and interpreted.”

The shooting requirements consisted of having one single shot that would be juxtaposed with a dialogue or monologue from a movie that the auteurs of these micro-films were fond of; then, the speech was added and was edited together with the images received. “Each person took on the challenge in their own personal way, and that’s why they’re all different, ranging from comedy, through science fiction, to existentialism. And the filmmakers were very good about it, as the deadline was so tight – just a few days – but the response was amazing. They got going as soon as they received our call,” continues Pablo de María. “Given the success of this call, we’ve also invited other directors to make their own Postales filmadas, and we will screen them in theatres alongside those that we’ve already received, or we will create a video installation featuring them all during the physical edition of the festival,” sums up the event’s head.

Postales filmadas is a production by SACO for the Municipal Culture Foundation of the Oviedo City Council.