The 22^nd edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival is set to kick off on 14 April with a screening of Cœur fidèle, directed by Jean Epstein, a shining example of French avant-garde cinema that, in 2023 – marking its centenary – will take centre stage in the Camera Obscura sidebar of the festival. The strand will be rounded off by Safety Last! by Fred C Newmeyer and Sam Taylor (1923), Entr’acte by René Clair (1924) and La Souriante Madame Beudet by Germaine Dulac (1923), all of which will be accompanied by live music, courtesy of different artists.

Coming up from 14-16 April is an intense weekend dedicated to programmes that will pay tribute to The Spirit of the Beehive (the magnum opus by Víctor Erice, which this year turns 50) and British filmmaker Terence Davies (who will not be able to make the journey to the island, in the end). Also scheduled over the weekend are screenings of works separated into sidebars such as Canarias Cinema (with titles of the likes of Killing Crabs [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Omar Al Abdul Razzak
scheda film], the winner of the Zonazine section at the most recent Málaga Film Festival, and the world premiere of El sueño del ladrón, the feature debut by Eduardo Díaz), Panorama España (whose main attraction will be the acclaimed 20,000 Species of Bees [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Estíbaliz Urresola
scheda film], alongside documentaries such as To Books and Women I Sing [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: María Elorza e Marian Fern…
scheda film]), plus others out of competition, such as Panorama and Déjà vu. After that, the official competition of the 22^nd Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival will begin in earnest on Monday 17 April and will continue unspooling until the 23^rd.

The official feature-film section is made up of The Klezmer Project [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Leandro Koch, Paloma Schac…
scheda film], a love story directed by Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann (Austria/Argentina); About Thirty, or generational confusion according to Martín Shanly (Argentina); the tense Copenhagen Does Not Exist [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Martin Skovbjerg
scheda film] by Martin Skovbjerg (Denmark); the diptych Bad Living [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: João Canijo
scheda film] and Living Bad [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: João Canijo
scheda film], both helmed by João Canijo (Portugal/France); Tomorrow Is a Long Time [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], a teen adventure by Jow Zhi Wei (Singapore/Taiwan/France/Portugal); Silent Witnesses, a chronicle of historic social struggles by Luis Ospina and Jerónimo Atehortúa Arteaga (Colombia/France); The Adults, which follows a compulsive gambler as he returns to his home town, directed by Dustin Guy Defa (USA); The Bride, a memoir of the Rwandan genocide by Myriam U Birara (Kenya); and Voyages en Italie [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film], a romantic getaway in Sicily by Sophie Letourneur (France).

According to festival director Luis Miranda, in the competitive strand, there is no lack of ironic humour – which is “all too infrequent in the official sections of festivals” – fiction or Latin American cinema, which is particularly plentiful. Thanks to the special sessions being organised by the festival, audiences will be able to catch Nine Letters to Bertha and Songs for After a War, both by Salamanca native Basilio Martín Patino, which will be shown as “superbly restored copies, courtesy of the Filmoteca Española”, as stated by Miranda. Plus, the festival will open a window on LGTBI+ topics with the world premiere of Calima rosa by Canary Islander Ismael Cabrera and a screening of Izaskun Arandia’s trans documentary My Way Out [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film].

Last but not least, it’s worth highlighting the features that, alongside various shorts, will be duking it out for the award in the alternative Banda Aparte section. They are Fairytale [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia/Belgium), See You Friday Robinson [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Mitra Farahani (France), Sean Eternxs by Raúl Perrone (Argentina) and Home Invasion by Graeme Arnfield (UK).