Francoism revisited in Les Chemins de la Mémoire

14/04/2010

Belgian Francophone documentaries are out in force at the moment at international festivals (seven films will be presented next week at Nyon). It’s harder for them to compete on the exhibition market in Belgium, although some films like those of Thierry Michel and last year’s Modus Operandi are worthy examples of success.

Hitting Belgian screens this week is José-Luis Peñafuerte’s Les Chemins de la Mémoire (“Paths of Memory”), a cinematic journey through the past, present and future of Spain. Over 30 years after Franco’s death, the film looks at the double process of recognition and mourning currently at work in the country, which probes its memory. It also gives a voice to victims of Francoism, long reduced to silence.

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Les Chemins de la Mémoire is the Belgian-Spanish director’s third documentary. It was produced by Man’s Films, headed by filmmaker Marion Hänsel, who produces few works besides her own but does so with conviction.

The film received backing from the Belgian French Community Film and Audiovisual Centre and the RTBF. It is being released in Belgium on a five-print run by Big Bang, and Films Distribution is handling international sales.

The line-up also includes young Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu’s second film. After his mordant 12:08 East of Bucharest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
interview: Daniel Burlac
film profile], he returns with Police, Adjective [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
film profile], where he plays with the codes of the detective genre, giving strong roles to actors who have appeared in films by other exponents of the Romanian New Wave (Dragos Bucur in The Death of Mr Lazarescu [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Vlad Ivanov in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Oleg Mutu
film profile]).

The film was produced by 42km Films, and is being launched by Benelux Film Distributors on five screens.

This week’s other European releases are Antoinette Beumer’s Dutch film The Happy Housewife [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Sam Taylor Wood’s Nowhere Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], about John Lennon’s teenage years; and Luc Besson’s non-animated directorial comeback The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec [+see also:
trailer
film profile].