Cinema “made in Granada” releases at San Sebastian Film Festival

“Tobacco Barns”, a film directed by local filmmaker Rocío Mesa and shot in the Vega of Granada, and two projects produced by the local company Ínsula Sur, will represent our Film Industry in the 70th edition of the prestigious Film Festival

“Tobacco Barns”, the movie shot last summer by the local director Rocío Mesa in the Vega of Granada, will have its world premiere next Sunday at the 70th edition of San Sebastian International Film Festival, where it will compete for the Kutxabank – New Directors Award, exclusively for first and second films by young filmmakers. Besides this premiere, there are another two projects: a feature film by Fernando Franco “La consagración de la primavera”, partly shot in Granada, and the documentary project “Y Punto” by Javier Toletino, produced by the local company Ínsula Sur, selected in the Industry Forum to seek financing for new documentary projects.   

The first vicepresident and provincial deputy of Culture and Historical Memory, Fátima Gómez, assure she feels “too proud of the important presence of the province of Granada this year at San Sebastián, firstly because it is the most prestigious Film Festival in Spain and secondly, because these are small milestones of Granada’s audiovisual industry, which represent the enormous potential of our province as a film set, with its wide variety of locations, and also serve to showcase the talent of our professionals and local companies and the work that we have been developing in Film in Granada”.

Filmmaker and screenwriter Rocío Mesa (Granada, 1983), said just a few hours before the premiere of her first work of fiction that “the moment of sharing is the most vulnerable but also the most beautiful, and that’s why  I feel so grateful to Zinemaldia, which offers us a privileged space for the dissemination of our work.  I’m feeling moved for the fact they meet our cast, made up mostly of non-professional actors, almost all of them from the Vega Granadina. I consider myself really fortunate to be part of such a significant event, surrounded by a historic moment in which women filmmakers are the main protagonists, which makes me feel supported and especially excited”.

“The landscape of my childhood, in Las Gabias, at the foot of Sierra Nevada mountains, was full of tobacco drying sheds: huge empty constructions that reigned over the landscape. Before my eyes as a child, who knew little about history or agriculture, these giant houses were the mysterious lairs of monsters that look over the land. And this is how the seed of Secaderos was born. With this film I want to propose a reunion exercise between man and landscape, a peaceful confrontation with the idea of the village, a summer story about human flourishing and change in geography,” state the local filmmaker, based in Los Angeles.

Shot last summer during six weeks in various locations in the Vega of Granada -Vegas del Genil, Las Gabias, Ambroz, Valderrubio, Fuente Vaqueros, El Jau, La Paz, Chauchina, Churriana and Purchil-, “Tobacco Barns” has received the excutive production of Olmo Figueredo from “La Claqueta”, also has obtained sponsorship from the Granada Provincial Tourism Board and the collaboration of the film office “Film in Granada”, in the casting organization besides searching locations and management of filming permits with different institutions, such as Junta de Andalucía.

Also it’s important the presence of local crew from Granada in the technical and artistic teams, beginning with the own director, Rocío Mesa, besides the main character, Ada Mar Lupiañez and a large part of the cast, made up of amateur actors from Granada, as well as the casting director, Marichu Sanz, the head of sound, Joaquín Pachón and the scriptwriter, Ana Aristegui, among other local professionals associated with Film in Granada, as well as the participation as “associate producer” of the local company Fourminds Films.

Ínsula Sur Projects

San Sebastián Film Festival will also include other two projects connected to Granada, both of them with the collaboration of the local company Ínsula Sur. On the one hand, next Tuesday is the premiere of the feature film “La consagración de la primavera” by Fernando Franco, which was partially shot in the city of Granada last February and which competes in the Official Selection besides new films by Isabel Coixet, Jaime Rosales and Pilar Palomero.

 

On the other hand, it’s also included the documentary project “Y punto”, produced by Javier Morales and directed by the journalist Javier Tolentino, which narrates history and different expressions of popular poetry between Spain and Latin America, including the “trovo alpujarreño”. The project began to take its first steps in June with the filming of several scenes in the Alpujarra, which will be one of the main locations, along with the Basque Country, Navarre, the Canary Islands and Cuba. In San Sebastian Film Festival, it has been selected at the “Lau Haizetera” Forum, which will present 15 documentary projects to potential financiers .   

The documentary Project, produced by the local company Ínsula Sur, with the collaboration of Arquetipo Comunicación (Navarre), Siroco Factory (Canary Islands) and Mirokutana (Basque Country), will offer a journey through traditional music and oral poetry between Spain and Latin America, including the “versolaris” of the Basque Country and Navarra, the “punto canario”, Cuban “repentismo” and “trovos” of the Alpujarra.