– The Valencian festival will unspool from 19-27 June, boasting a programme that takes in features, short films and series
The Patron by Julia Thelin
Cinema Jove – Valencia International Film Festival, organised by the region’s Ministry for Education, Culture and Universities, and promoted by the Valencian Institute of Culture (IVC), has unveiled the programme for its 41st edition, which will take place from 19-27 June. New director María Albiñana is at the reins of this cultural rendezvous, an ideal meeting place for new directors, presenting a varied cross-section of feature debuts. “The level of this edition is exceptional, which has made coming up with the final selection especially complex,” she pointed out.
And so, the Official Feature Section comprises nine films in competition, and the movie given the honour of opening the gathering will be Sweden’s The Patron, helmed by Julia Thelin, a satirical thriller revolving around the class structure in Northern Europe.
From Romania comes On Our Own by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, which was selected for the Berlinale, and which offers a hard-hitting but non-judgemental look at directionless adolescence; from Germany we have When We Saw Each Other More Often by William Wrubel, shot on Super 16 mm; and Malta offers The Voice of the Past, a co-production between Malta, Germany and Qatar, constituting the second film by Alex Camilleri (Luzzu). In Filipiñana, which was selected for Sundance and the Berlinale, Rafael Manuel dissects the power dynamics of the ruling classes in a luxury hotel complex, while in No Good Men, another movie screened at the Berlinale (as the opening film), Shahrbanoo Sadat uses the codes of the romantic comedy to paint a portrait of Afghanistan in 2021, during the withdrawal of US troops. Asian-European co-produced documentaries will also be on the menu, including Whispers in May by Dongnan Chen, which won the top prize at the most recent CPH:DOX, and I Heard That They Are Not Going To See Each Other Anymore by Ka Ki Wong, another CPH:DOX selection that combines fiction and documentary. The line-up is rounded off by the US flick Chronovisor by Jack Auen and Kevin Walker, which was premiered at IFFR.
The short-film section upholds its status as an international platform raising the visibility of filmmakers aged up to 40. This edition marks the return of directors such as Spaniard Christian Avilés, who is presenting Stallion and a Crystal Ball; France’s Guil Sela, with No Skate!; Russia’s Aleksey Evstigneev, with his fiction title Habibi; and Spanish-based Peruvian director Rocío Quillahuamán, with the documentary Oralia. In addition to a strong showing of comedies and animations, with titles such as Praying Mantis by Hong Kong’s Joe Hsieh and Once in a Body by Colombia’s María Cristina Pérez, the themes on display at this edition range from mystical coming-of-age in rural surroundings in Mal de madre by Catalonian helmer Irene Baqué and Nest by Switzerland’s Stefania Burla to family conflict in A certa distància by Valencian native Laura Pérez Gómez and resistance to capitalist dynamics through caregiving, as depicted in Deprisa, deprisa by Valencia’s Claudia García de Mateos. Fellow Valencian helmer Iván Fernández de Córdoba also comes along with Esto está frío.
Lastly, the Series strand turns 11 at this edition, and this time, competing shows include the Spanish teen drama Sense filTRES, the German comedy about civil servants Das Manko, the French production Respire Fort, Sweden’s Burden of Justice, the Russian thriller Khirurg, Canada’s Vitrerie Joyal and Les Saturnides, Colombia’s Dear Killer Nannies: Criado por sicarios, and Taiwan’s Pai Pai.
(Translated from Spanish)
