30/04/2024 - From 1 to 5 May, Tui in Galicia will host works by masters such as Jean-Luc Godard, Paul Vecchiali, Jean-Claude Rousseau, Enrico Ghezzi, Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi

Frente a Guernica by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi

The International Film Festival Play-Doc, whose 20th edition will take place from 1 to 5 May in the Galician city of Tui, has included renowned filmmakers with works known for their constant risk-taking in its international official section.

The film festival will also show one of the posthumous works of the French genius Jean-Luc Godard (the short-collage Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist), the recent film by the Brazilian Júlio Bressane Leme do destino, as well as the latest works by researchers of cinematographic language such as the late Paul Vecchiali, who portrays a family reunion in Bonjour la langue [+see also:
film review
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film profile]; the Italian-Spanish co-production by the duo Yervant Gianikian and the also deceased Angela Ricci Lucchi, Frente a Guernica [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; the Italian Enrico Ghezzi, who directed The Last Days of Humanity [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] with his compatriot Alessandro Gagliardo; the French Jean-Claude Rousseau (with the short film Où sont tous mes amants ?), and the American Jerome Hiler (and his Cinema Before 1300).

Throughout its twenty-year history, Play-Doc has always been committed to Galician audiovisual productions, acting as a meeting point, a promotional platform and an introduction to productions from the region. Its traditional Galicia Competition features a range of different proposals, both in terms of form and subject matter.

The selected films include the feature films that focus on memory O auto das ánimas, by Pablo Lagos Dantas, where a family comes together to review its history; Os espazos en branco, by Bruno Arias, which follows the director in his attempt to remember an influential aunt in his life; and Aurora, by Area Erina, which reflects on the conversation between women from different generations. And Salvaxe, salvaxe, by Emilio Fonseca Martín, is a film essay that questions the relationship between humans and nature.

In this same competitive section, the past comes to life in the present in the short films 12 de Maio de 1937, directed by Mar Caldas, which remembers a socialist city councillor shot during the Civil War; Queimar cando morra, by Inés Pintor, which examines the role of women through items from her grandmother's wardrobe; Segunda II, by Anita Pico, which over 17 minutes narrates the epic of a matriarch of the small Galician village of Couso; and Viaxar aos teus recordos é buscar pelexa, by Daniel Pérez Silva, which explores the concept of nostalgia. In addition, Paula Fuentes and Guillermo Cabrera's Corre o vento follows a woman who triggers a transformation in her grandfather's village; and Hugo Amoedo's Pechar caixas abrir caixas reflects on the return to Galicia. Closer to film essays are the two short films by Xacio Baño, Non te vexo and Platónico, platónica, which work, respectively, on discarded images and artificial intelligence; and Lavadoiro, a short film by Anna Amado and Lois Patiño, which reflects on these spaces of domestic work and female encounters.

The festival’s complete programme, with its activities and retrospectives, can be found here.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)