Hailed by Variety as the standout film at this year’s Panorama program in Berlin, Joaquín del Paso’s The Garden We Dreamed won Best Picture, Director and Cinematography (Gökhan Tiriaki) at the Malaga Festival, which concludes with an awards ceremony on Saturday night.
Also receiving the highest praise were Spain’s “I Want to Die for Love,” which won the Golden Visnaga Award at the Spanish Film Awards, as well as “Ivan and Hadum” and Chile’s “The Red Hangar.”
Focusing on films from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, it will host screening content in Spain, the equivalent of France’s UniFrance Rendez-Vous in Paris.
“Despite being a small-scale production, Del Paso’s third feature, The Garden We Dreamed of, has real cinematic weight – thanks in large part to the impressive widescreen lensing of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s regular director Gökhan Tiryaki – and an urgent human stake that firmly pushes this intimate, sensitive film into the realm of the heart-wrenching survival thriller,” Variety said in its Berlin review. Head of an arthouse distributor, it’s no surprise that further festival invitations follow. ”
It’s not just the excellent sound design that makes the movie feel at its full potential. It is particularly notable for its stunning opening sequence, which captures the cacophony of Mexico’s beautiful Oyamel fir forest at dawn. Add in the presence of countless monarch butterflies, and The Garden We Dreamed is an eclectic film constructed as a family love story.
The 29th Malaga Film Festival “confirmed the strength and vitality of Spanish-language cinema,” declared director Juan Antonio Bigal at the awards presentation in Malaga.
This is also reflected in the prizes. Distributed by M-Appeal, The Garden We Dreamed is Del Paso’s third feature, following 2016’s Pan-American Machinery and 2021’s The Hole in the Fence, each of which take his ambitions to the next level. Otherwise, the other titles that dominated Saturday’s awards were either “I Won’t Die For Love,” which is a first feature, “Iván & Hadoum,” or “The Red Hangar,” which is at least a first fiction feature.
The film that won the biggest awards since its world premiere in Malaga was “Never Die for Love,” written and directed by Marta Matute, which won not only the Spanish Film Award, but also Best Actress (Julia Mascourt) and Best Supporting Actor (Tomás del Estar). Inspired by Matute’s personal experience as an early adult caregiver for his mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, the title has always been a top contender for major competitions. Spanish newspaper La Opinion de Murcia said, “The film was moving and convincing thanks to its sensitivity, observation, and bittersweet tone.” Solita Films (“The Glass Bowl”) is producing in collaboration with Elastica (“Alcarràs”) and is also handling distribution in Spain.
Ian de la Rosa’s Ivan and Hadum, set loose in a greenhouse in southern Spain, was another Berlin Panorama title and won the festival’s Special Jury Prize, Best Original Screenplay (De La Rosa) and Special Award for Best Actor (Silver Cicon).
“It’s a classic love story between non-classic characters,” de la Rosa told Variety, with the film unfolding as an empathetic and captivating romance between a transgender man, Iván, and his Moroccan-Spanish co-worker Hadum. De la Rosa co-wrote “Veneno” and earned a spot at the Cannes Film Festival with the short “Avalón,” produced by “Alcarràs.” The indie sales representative is responsible for international copyrights.
“Ivan & Hadum”
“Ivan and Hadum” Provided by: Indie Rights
The film, titled “Red Hangar” by Berlinale Perspective and based on the book “Shoot the Herd” by investigative journalist Fernando Villagran and the memories of Captain Jorge Silva, was shot in black and white and won the Málaga Audience Award, the Critics and Jury Award, and the Best Actor Award (Nicolas Zarate), a combination important for future sales. The former Chilean air force intelligence chief will be reappointed as an instructor in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The Air Force Academy was repurposed as a torture center hours after Augusto Pinochet’s coup.
In explaining their reasons for winning the film, the Malaga critical jury said: “It is a rigorous and restrained but impeccable story and a humanistic portrayal of the complexities of human behavior, in which the characters try to resolve their contradictions with the utmost dignity possible.”
“Red Hangar”
Two of the main contest nominees, Best Supporting Actress and Best Music (Sergio Prudencio and Marcelo Guerrero), also went to Ventana Sur and Toronto Festival hit The Daughter of the Condor, a classic coming-of-age story based on the striking and often far-reaching realities of the Andean highlands. The film is written, directed and produced by Álvaro Olmos Torico of Empatía Cinema, a key figure in Bolivia’s film industry.
This will continue in the future.
“Daughter of the Condor”
Provided by Bendita Film Sales
