01/12/2010

Politics, an art much reviled nowadays, is the focal point of the programme at one of Spain’s most original and interesting film festivals. Despite the excessive number of film-related events, the organisers of the Ronda International Film Festival decided there was an important element missing on the circuit: a event that dignified politics and gave it the value it deserves.

The festival’s first edition opened on Saturday, November 27 and will run until December 4. Pride of place will go to UK director Ken Loach, who will receive the Honorary Goyesca, and late Portuguese writer José Saramago.

The event will combine films – in three competitive sections, one for features, one for documentaries and another for shorts – with meetings and debates.

Among the selected films are several European productions, including Chris Morris’s Brit comedy Four Lions [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which tackles the subject of terrorism in an intelligent and entertaining way; Romain Goupil’s French film Hands Up [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Florian Cossen’s German title The Day I Wasn't Born; and Marion Hänsel’s Black Ocean [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Belgium/France/Germany). The line-up also features films with an impressive career behind them, such as Samuel Maoz’s Venice Golden Lion winner Lebanon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Israel/Germany/France); Jean-Stéphane Bren’s Cleveland Versus Wall Street [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Stéphane Bron
film profile] (France/Switzerland); and Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light (France/Germany/Chile).

The meeting with Loach will be one of the most eagerly-awaited moments. He will be accompanied by his regular screenwriter, Paul Laverty, who also penned the screenplay to the festival’s closing film Even the Rain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile] by Iciar Bollaín.

(Translated from Spanish)