In addition, the Official Section has received ‘La pecera’, the drama by Glorimar Marrero after a great reception at the Sundance Film Festival.
Nearing the final stretch of the last edition of the Malaga Festival, today, Thursday, March 16, has been a long-awaited day for many of those attending the event. Today the tape was projected 20,000 species of beesone of the titles that has aroused the most expectation within the Official Section.
In addition, in the same category we have been able to see Fishbowl, the work of Glorimar Marrero Sánchez; and the counterpoint of the day has put it Amazon Prime with the presentation of the science fiction film Awareness, framed within the Málaga Premiere Official Section Out of Competition section.
‘20,000 species of bees’, the reflection of a childhood that also exists and nobody wants to see
After what Sofia Otero won the award for Best actress at the BerlinaleAll eyes have been on 20,000 species of bees, the first fiction feature film directed and signed by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren. Expectations were high, and the film has exceeded them and it has earned an emotional standing ovation during its screening in the movie theater.
The film follows Aitor, an eight-year-old boy who is trying to show the world how he feels and what his true identity is. She wants to stop calling herself Aitor and for her family to end up looking at her how she feels. For a few weeks she travels with her mother Ane (Patricia López Arnaiz) and her brothers to the town, where she will be the center of many prying eyes and the focus of all the family gossip.
However, for Cocó this situation with her family or the rest of the boys and girls does not stop her in her efforts to show herself as she feels she should. She will not give in to the call of her inner self for wanting to be herself. Sofia does an amazing job in this aspect. How such a young actress can express hundreds of feelings with just a look or a silence.
The interpretations of each member of the Cocó family are so powerful and rich in its plot arc that serve as perfect gears to the main theme of the film. The background story of each one of them, from brother Eneko who also experiences his own personal exploration, to his great-aunt, a lady beekeeper that despite being from a generation more rooted in old customs, he does not close the door on the feeling of the little girl until he turns it into his own.
It is noticeable that Urresola has done a measured previous work and in a very careful way, in the film there is not a detail that remains in the air or a dialogue that is not loaded with intentions. 20,000 species of bees is an ode to the diversity of identities and emotional interdependence on an emotional level that generation after generation accumulates until it leaves us breathless.
20,000 species of bees It not only deals with the journey that the transsexual protagonist is going through in the film, but also with everything that it entails on an emotional level for families and how fear can make us lose the perspective of love.
‘The fishbowl’, the agonizing prison of the sick
Fishbowl it deals with the story of a woman with cancer, but here there are no handkerchiefs, therapies between tears or optimistic visions, here what there is is a lot of suffering and the harsh reality of the disease. Glorimar Marrero makes his debut with this feature film that has not gone unnoticed and that, after a great reception at Sundancearrives in Malaga.
A very powerful message shared by Marrero’s tape is that neither cancer patients are heroes nor is there anything wrong with giving up. Noeliathe protagonist of the film, receives the news that the cancer she suffers from is spreading rapidly and she has to few options to escape him. She doesn’t get strength because she doesn’t have it, she’s tired of fighting and she just wants her environment to let her live what little she has left.
This is the real plot Fishbowl -That’s where his name comes from-. Noelia’s partner wants to protect her in such a way that she has created a prison around her. She always has to explain herself when she wants to leave the house, she watches all her movements and prevents her from even locking the bathroom. A deprivation of privacy that it is suffocating and what do I know interspersed with suffering from the effects of cancer to create an agonizing story that hurts.
The Noelia’s personal struggle to be free gains even more strength against the background of the colonization of the Puerto Rican people. She was born on Vieques, an island paradise that became her refuge and, however, carried years of US occupation behind it. Everything is led by Isel Rodríguez, the main actress who plays Noelia with a captivating fortitude.
‘Awareness’, when the supernatural merges with the action
After directing the Netflix film Xtremo, filmmaker Daniel Benmayor repeats with the action genre and with a streaming platform, but this time with Amazon Prime. He also recounts in his cast with Óscar Jaenada.
Awareness follows Ian, (Carlos Scholz), a young man who lives nomadically with his alcoholic father. But Juan is not like any young man his age, rather he hides a peculiar talent that makes your mind see what he wants you to imagine, among other things. This peculiar gift makes him the target of a group of researchers and a mysterious man who shares his own talent.
The film has high profiles within its cast such as Óscar Jaenada, María Pedraza or Pedro Alonso, something that captures the viewer’s attention from the first moment. In addition, the result in the special effects scenes is not far from the big Hollywood productions that we are used to consuming in the ‘mainstream’.
