Instituto Cervantes holds film series featuring movies from Castilla y León

This month of May, Instituto Cervantes Manila, in collaboration with Castilla y León Film Commission and the Embassy of Spain, will present a film series by filmmakers from Castilla y León. This film series aims to provide an insight into the film production in this region, with productions by local directors and talents who make use of traditions, history and current situations in the territory as the framework for their screenplays, in an attempt to create a Castilian-Leonese cinema. The movie series includes four feature films and three short films and will be shown every Thursday during the month of May at the Instituto Cervantes in Manila.  Each screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the filmmakers, and Kristine Guzmán, head of Castilla y León Film Commission.

The series will kick off on May 8 at 2:00 PM with the screening of the short film Alegre y olé (2023, 20 min.), directed by Clara Santaolaya. It tells the story of Lena and Carmen, patients in a psychiatric center. Despite their age difference, the two women develop a very special and, to a certain extent, speculative relationship. Thus, through empathy, affection and a lack of judgment, both manage to overcome their own guilt and fears and plant the first seed of their recovery.

It will be followed by the feature film Gallo Rojo (2024, 84 min.) directed by Enrique García-Vázquez. It is the story of Ana, who returns to the village one summer to set up a cinema after living in a big city for a while. There she meets up with Lucía, an old acquaintance. Their friendship grows as Ana struggles to get her life back in the countryside.

On May 15 at 2:00 PM, the next screening in the film series is Yo, mi, me, conmigo (2024, 14 min.), directed by Alicia Van Assche. The short documentary is about Nemesio, a sheep pastor in Babia, León. He lives as he did a century ago, without running water and sometimes without electricity. His way of life is now a viable option for a group of people who need calm and those who seek to silence the mental noise.

The documentary is complemented by the feature film Pastoris (2024, 108 min.), directed by Pablo Moreno.  Pastoris is a drama-thriller that traces the life of Domingo, who returns home after having been given up for dead in the war. Everything has changed, even his family. Now he is the piece that does not fit into society. The possibility of a job that could bring him some benefits arises: shepherding a flock of sheep from Salamanca to the winter pastures of Extremadura. Domingo begins the journey through magical places, showing us the strange and fascinating customs of the shepherd society. He is not aware that the dangers are not only on the road, but within himself. This film is in Palra, a Leonese dialect that is conserved in the region.

The third screening will take place on March 22 at 2:00 pm, with Las calles de Granada (2023, 14 min.), a short directed by Isabel Medarde. Set in 1941, it features the traditional patronal feast of the Virgin of Manzaneda in Manzaneda del Torío. After the procession and mass, the villagers go to the festival livened by La Orquestina de León. The festive atmosphere is cut short when two girls, Socorro and Lola, start a fight over Narciso. To everyone's amazement, the girls relive, during the dance, the brawl narrated in the song that La Orquestina is playing: ''The Streets of Granada''.

It will be followed by Secundarias (2023, 81 min.), directed by Arturo Dueñas. Filmed in plan sequence featuring a group of actresses who are preparing for the premiere of the play Letters to the Emperor at the Teatro Calderón in Valladolid, about the last days of the Emperor Charles V at the Monastery of Yuste in September 1558 surrounded by the most important women in his life. But things do not go as planned.

The series will conclude on March 29 at 2:00 PM with La Controversia de Valladolid (2023, 70 min.), directed by Juan Rodríguez-Briso. The film revolves around a debate between Bartolomé de las Casas and Ginés de Sepúlveda, who held two historically antagonistic positions about the natural rights of Native Americans during the mid-16th century. Almost 500 years later, a small group of experts analyze what is considered to be the first debate in history on Human Rights.

All films will be screened in their original Spanish language with English subtitles and will take place at the Intramuros branch of Instituto Cervantes (855 Calle Real, San Luis Complex, Intramuros, Manila).

Admission is free, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, visit Instituto Cervantes' website at www.manila.cervantes.es, or follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila.