‘On Sundays’, by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, irrefutable gold shell of the San Sebastián Festival | Cinema: premieres and criticism

Sundays, From Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, the Golden Concha of the 73rd edition of the San Sebastián Festival has won this Saturday. A film about religious faith infused faith in the ability of cinema to reflect complexities. And confirmed Ruiz de Azúa, after Five lobitos and the series To want, As amazing analyst of family conflicts, thank you, among many other capabilities, how to roll the conversations in meals between relatives and their tormented interfaces. The trigger of Sundays It comes from a 17-year-old girl, from middle-class family-high Bilbao and educated in a religious school, which announces to those around her who wants to be a nun and reclide in a closing convent. His relatives react in very different ways, projecting in it his own means and opinions, ranging from respecting his free will to torticate to warn it of the possible indoctrination: sect or religion? Faith or manipulation?

The triumph of Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Barakaldo, 47 years old), built from a story he met in his youth, is greater, because he has not only taken the Golden shell. He has also won in the Zinemira section, dedicated to Basque cinema, and three other trailers: the signis of the ecclesiastical jury; The Fipresci, which gives international criticism, and the fierce, of the Association of Cinematographic Informators. Five out of five.

If last year the Gold Concha fell to a documentary made from a point of view that never clarified whether he was favor or against bullfighting, that is, he left the viewer that decision, in this edition he plays exactly the same thing: he question the audience, serves as a mirror to the public that will see his ideology on screen reflected, whatever his option, and if he attends, he will see that there are powerful reasons. That does not mean that Ruiz de Azúa does not have his opinion: “I wonder if you have to tolerate everything. I do not know, I hope that the film leads us to talk about minors and religious freedom. In defense of that freedom of the parents, can we teach religion to the children in schools? Why not wait until 18 years? And within each family, not in an educational center,” he explained “on stage, the director pointed out:” Understanding something does not mean validating it. “The members of the jury that presided have been clear. It is an irrefutable shell, and the third consecutive for Spanish cinematography.

Because if I hadn’t won Sundays, There was another Spanish film, it is another resounding film, chiseled by a creator who has been in the Barcelona neighborhood of Vallbona to apprehend his essence of resilient immigration and thus create a documentary that hybridized poetry and social portrait that remembers the great guerin, that of Innisfree (1990), Shadow train (1997) y Under construction (2001), with which he won the same award, the jury special, which now obtains Stories of the Good Valley. He has achieved a second position, as could have been first.

The contest delivers awards to leading and secondary interpretations, without gender distinction. And that causes jurors to juggle expectations. The protagonist was from the level for Jose Ramon Soroiz and Zhao Xiaohong. El Veterano Soroiz, He has insufflated life and emotion to his Vicente, an elderly homosexual who in his return home, to Donostia, has to return to the closet. “In 50 years that I have been working as an actor, I have never been so happy. That is why this award belongs to all of us. But I take it home,” he said with the silver shell in his hand.

Soroiz shared the honor with the China Zhao Xiaohong, who in Jianyu Uide Mama She plays herself: after a decade in prison for killing her husband (who mistreated her), Zhao left prison for good behavior and tried to make a living as music while struggling to reconnect with her son, a child who had educated with her mother -in -law. Therefore, with the trophy in his hand, he dedicated him to herself and her son: “Your mother loves you.” And he fought not to leave the stage, with his desire to speak and receive applause. Another thing will not have the movie, but Zhao gives off truth.

The Argentine cinema has only achieved the award for the best secondary interpretation for De Dolores Fonzi, he plays, in northern Argentina. Yes, it is a real story, and yes, it was the spark that propelled the feminist green tide that led to the approval of the abortion law in the South American country. Plate recalled that this film brings “memory, freedom and justice because if it could be, you can” in reference to the “women’s liberation movement.” And insisted that what Belén was for the Argentines: “This story is the fire of all. Long and free we love each other.”

The other great Argentine film, The currents, Of miracles Mumenthaler, he was unfairly empty, when his direction is much superior to that of the Belgian in Six spring days, That not only has the silver shell won in that section, but also the best script award. Too much for a very light film, in which the Belgian reproduces an episode of his own childhood, and that is far from the rest of his powerful and rigorous filmography.

Little prize seems for photography, which has been taken from this work, Pau Esteve Birba (Goya winner for Cannibal). Of course, his work shone above the rest, and his sequences in the marine depths, in which the public is never lost in action while suffering, like the divers of the film, the lack of visibility, are lavish.

While the awards were given in the Kursaal, on the red carpet there was deployment of Palestinian flags, although it has been the Zinemaldia of Gaza, which has been clear the position of San Sebastián and the world of cinema, which has called genocide, as it cannot be otherwise, to the crimes that Israel is committing in that strip of land. At the closing gala, awarded after awarded, they remembered the situation in Gaza.

Sundays It has been one of the two films of the festival, the other has been Tunisian the drama is built with the recordings of the red crescent, which on January 29, 2024 tried to save a six -year -old girl who was traveling in a car with other relatives in northern Gaza, when in a service station the vehicle was riddled by Israeli troops. He only survived Hind attack, who responded to the phone when the relief services called. The effort of hours to get to her was unsuccessful, and the breeding died alone, without receiving help. Hind’s voice, That was projected in Perlak, he has won the public prize with the best score in the history of the contest: 9.52 points over 10. When collecting the diploma, actor Motaz Malhees remembered the story of Hind, and the impotence of those who wanted to save her, before finishing off with a “free Palestine.”

In the rest of the sections, there have been no surprises. In new directors, the Danish Vaegtloes, From Emilie Thalund, the best film was chosen. In Latin horizons, the Colombian candidate for the Oscar, the spawning A poet, of Simón Mesa Soto. En Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, Triumfó With Marion Cotillard as cold queen of cinema. And the youth award was taken by the Chilean The mysterious look of flamenco, by Diego Céspedes.

To sadness of the cinephiles, in the official section to the contest there has been that of the four Spanish films and two of the Argentines (which explains that this is the third consecutive Spanish gold shell) and the rest. There were no deplorable films, but a multitude of mediocre works by great authors, which caused disappointments in the armchair. That Zinemaldia does not manage to recruit better titles beyond the Spanish, French and Latin American wipes, the usual ones, is a big problem, which increases edition after edition. And it has no easy solution.