film

The second edition of Barcelona’s documentary festival takes place under pandemic conditions as a hybrid event with several live screenings and most of the program running on Filmin. The opening film Balandrau, infern glaçat to be shown live on May 18^th at Aribau Multicines uses personal testimonies to portray a fierce storm in the Catalan Pyrenees that killed nine people in 2000. A milder, happier winter tale is offered in Lobster Soup, featuring old fishermen, musicians, boxers and elves around Iceland in a delightful comedy about human communities.

Among the other highlights from the Official Selection is Gianfranco Rossi’s Nighttime, a fusion of nightmarish war images filmed in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon; Firouzeh Khosrovani’s Radiograph of a Family which zooms into the frictions in Iranian society from the 1979 revolution to today though the lens of a family conflict; and Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda, focused on a pig’s life on a farm, reminding us that we share our planet with billions of other animals who deserve respect.

Not to be missed from the Latitude section are Room Without a View on the harsh reality and slavery experienced by migrant women laboring as domestic workers in Lebanon; and Rebel Objects investigating mysterious stone spheres along the Costa Rican landscape that might be signs of alien life or ancient traditions.