“Close your eyes”, the film that Erice shot in the province of Granada, will premiere at Cannes

The municipalities of Gualchos-Castell de Ferro, Nigüelas and Dúrcal are the locations of the film, shot with the support of Film in Granada

Forty years after his first foray into Cannes with “El Sur”, and thirty-one years since “The Dream of Light” won the Jury Prize and the Fipresci Award, Víctor Erice returns to the Cannes Film Festival with CLOSE YOUR EYES, his fourth fiction feature film. The film will be presented next May in the official selection, as part of the Cannes Première section, where it will have its world premiere in the presence of the director and the starring cast.

With a screenplay by Erice himself and Michel Gaztambide (winner of a Goya for “No peace for the wicked”), the film tells the story of a disappearance, which revolves around the themes of identity and memory.

CLOSE YOUR EYES stars Manolo Solo, along with Jose Coronado and Ana Torrent. The cast is completed with a good selection of big names such as María León, Petra Martínez, Soledad Villamil, Mario Pardo, Elena Miquel, and José María Pou, among others.

SYNOPSIS

A Spanish actor disappears during the filming of a movie. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he has suffered an accident at the edge of a cliff.

Many years later, this kind of mystery returns to the present day as a result of a television program that aims to evoke the figure of the actor, offering as a preview images of the last scenes in which he participated, shot by his close friend, the director Miguel Garay. The beginning and the end of an unfinished film.

CLOSE YOUR EYES is a co-production of La mirada del adiós A.I.E., led by Cristina Zumárraga through Tandem Films, her company with Pablo E. Bossi, together with Jose Alba and Odile Antonio-Baez’s Pecado Films on the Andalusian side, and with Pampa Films in co-production from Argentina and Erice himself with his production company Nautilus Films.

It has the participation of TVE, MOVISTAR PLUS+, CANAL SUR and EiTB and the support of the Provincial Council of Granada, through Film in Granada, as well as the ICAA, the Regional Government of Andalusia and the Community of Madrid.

The shooting took place last October in various locations in the province of Granada, in the municipalities of Gualchos-Castell de Ferro, Nigüelas and Dúrcal, as well as in Almería, Madrid, Alcalá of Henares, Segovia and Asturias.

For his new feature film Erice has counted on Valentín Álvarez as director of photography, with whom he already worked in “La Morte Rouge” and “Vidros partidos“, Erice’s contribution to “Historic Center“, the film promoted by the celebration of the Portuguese city of Guimaraes as European Capital of Culture, which also included episodes by Pedro Costa, Manoel de Oliveira and Aki Kaurismaki.

And with the sound designer Iván Marín (“The skin I lived in”, “The Good Boss”) who worked with Erice in “Ten Minutes Older”, and in “Erice-Kiarostami: Correspondences”. The sound post-production was carried out by Juan Ferro.

The CLOSE YOUR EYES team also includes names such as Curru Garabal (“Out in the Open”) in charge of art direction, Helena Sanchis (“Numbered Days”, “The Nautical Chart”) who is in charge of costumes, and Ascen Marchena (“The Island Inside”), who is in charge of editing.  The soundtrack is by Federico Jusid (“The Secret in Their Eyes”).

Víctor Erice has received countless awards, including the Golden Shell in 1973 for his first film “The Spirit of the Beehive”, whose fiftieth anniversary is being celebrated these days; the Golden Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival for his second feature film, “El Sur”, which was presented in the Official Selection at Cannes; and later, the Jury and International Critics’ Prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival for “The Dream of Light”. This film received special recognition when it was voted the best film of its decade by film libraries and cultural centers around the world.

Years later, Erice contributes to the collective film Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet with the episode Lifeline. In 2006 he wrote and directed the medium-length film La Morte Rouge, as well as different audiovisual projects and video installations, but he had not returned to direct any feature-length fiction film until now.

In 1993, Erice received the National Cinematography Award, and in 1995 the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. More recently, in 2014, the Locarno Festival distinguished him with the Leopard of Honor dedicated to his entire career as a filmmaker.

Now he returns to the big screen with CLOSE YOUR EYES, his fourth feature film, which will be released in Spanish cinemas in 2023 by Avalon and will be sold internationally by Film Factory.