15/04/2024 - Spanish director Adrián Orr returns to the Swiss festival, after previously attending it with his first documentary, Niñato, with a coming-of-age tale recounted from a working-class, urban perspective

Sara and Pedro, young adults from a working-class suburb of Madrid, love to raise hell together. But over the course of one summer, Sara makes new friends who introduce her to another world – that of the theatre. Caught up in a whirlwind of love and parties, she becomes torn between the two worlds. Her metamorphosis unfolds as she refutes her destiny.

This is the synopsis of To Our Friends, the second feature-length documentary by Spanish director Adrián Orr, which has been selected for the Panorama section of the 55th Visions du Réel, unspooling from 12-21 April.

“I felt the need to make a film that would recapture and be steeped in that chaotic power that we all had when we were teenagers. I wanted to create a story that would channel that high-octane energy that stems from believing that anything is possible, including when you don’t have the necessary tools to be able to imagine that 'anything' very clearly. In the process of finding and getting to know Sara, I realised that she was following a path that was very similar to the one I trod. With her new friends, Sara was discovering a new social reality that, unbeknownst to her, was changing her profoundly – which is exactly what happened to me," explains the director.

The filmmaker, who was born in Madrid in 1981, has worked as an assistant director, collaborating with Spanish helmers of the likes of Javier Rebollo, Montxo Armendáriz and Lois Patiño. Niñato [+see also:
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film profile], his feature debut, which straddled fiction and documentary, got a simultaneous premiere at Visions du Réel and BAFICI, scooping awards at both festivals. Later on, in Spain, it picked up the Award for Best Film in the New Waves section of the Seville European Film Festival.

To Our Friends, co-written with Celso Giménez and Samuel M Delgado, is a Spanish-Portuguese co-production staged by José Alayón and Marina Alberti for El Viaje Films, Hugo Herrera for New Folder Studio, and João Salaviza for Karõ Filmes.

Check out our exclusive poster below:

(Translated from Spanish)