Paris/The French Biarritz Latin America film festival begins its 35th edition this Saturday, in which tribute will be paid to the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura and the Chilean musician Eduardo Carrasco, founding member of the Quilapayún folklore group and a reference for the Chilean New Song.
Both will receive an Honorary Hug, the honorary award given by this annual contest held in the tourist coastal town of the French Basque Country.
Both are, according to the festival, “two outstanding figures of Latin American creation, whose works and commitments maintain a deep link with the history, memory and realities of the continent.”
In the case of Carrasco, who will collect his award this Saturday, the tribute serves to celebrate Latin American culture through committed music, “intimately linked to the political and social history of Chile,” which gave voice to an entire generation.
Along with the award ceremony this afternoon, the documentary will also be screened Quilapayún beyond the song.
Regarding Padura, who will be in Biarritz to collect his Embrace of Honor on Tuesday, the festival celebrates a career of international resonance “deeply anchored in the history and society of Cuba”, but which – especially based on its emblematic character of Mario Conde – also questions “memory, freedom, disappointments and the radical changes of an entire era.”
Regarding Padura, the festival celebrates a career of international resonance “deeply anchored in the history and society of Cuba”
The festival will open tonight with Fliesa co-production between Mexico and Spain by Fernando Eimbcke.
The main competition of this edition, fiction feature films, will feature films by Mexican actor and director Diego Luna (Ash in the mouth) and Jonás Cuarón, son of Alfonso Cuarón (Gabacho Champion), along with another Mexican film, Nose by Rodrigo García Sáiz.
The selection also includes the Costa Rican Bye bye, paradiseby Kim Elizondo Navarro; Argentina The road (Federico Pozzi); the ecuadorian Ivyby Ana Cristina Barragán, and Nunkuiby Verenice Benítez; as well as the Colombian Five years, four monthsby Esteban Hoyos García and Juan Miguel Gelacio.
The Brazilian completes the list Canvas heartby Tuca Siqueira, and the Chilean red hangarby Juan Pablo Sallato.
The winner of the contest will be announced at the closing of the festival, on October 2, the date on which the documentary will be screened as the final touch. The matchby Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco, about the legendary 1986 World Cup soccer match between Argentina and England and which left, among other iconic moments, the “hand of God” goal.
In addition to Padura, Carrasco and figures from a good part of the selected films, the French philosopher and revolutionary activist Régis Debray and the director Costa-Gavras will also be in Biarritz, as special guests of this 35th edition, to talk about the figure of Ernesto Guevara, and the Chilean filmmaker Carmen Castillo.
Also in Biarritz, as special guests of this 35th edition, will be the French philosopher and revolutionary activist Régis Debray and the director Costa-Gavras.
In the documentary category, a dozen titles from Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Argentina will compete.
Outside of competition in the French coastal city you will be able to see some of the Latin American titles that have attracted the most attention in international circuits, such as The thawby the Chilean Manuela Martelli, or I am always your mother animalby Costa Rican Valentina Maurel and awarded at the last Cannes Festival.
Likewise, this year there will be special focuses on the cinematography of Uruguay and Cuba, with around twenty screenings and the presence of figures such as the writer of Uruguayan origin and naturalized Spanish Carmen Posadas.
Last year the film won the festival’s main prize The condor daughterby the Bolivian Álvaro Olmos Torrico.
