ZINEBI – International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, organised by Bilbao Town Hall, has announced the nine feature films from 14 countries (Ukraine, France, Germany, Romania, Portugal, Serbia, Croatia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Iran, Japan and Colombia) competing in the Official Section – International Competition ZIFF – ZINEBI First Film, in its seventh round this year. They will all be competing for the ZIFF Grand Award, the largest amount in the entire ZINEBI Festival (12,000 €), and for the Young Jury Award (University of the Basque Country – UPV/EHU), to be decided by a panel of film and audiovisual students from universities and teaching centres in the Basque Country, 2,000 €.
The international jury in this section of ZINEBI 64 will be composed of Serbian artist and director Marta Popivoda, the editor of Cinemanía magazine Carlos Marañón and French programmer, university lecturer and writer Nicole Brenez.
The nine films competing have not yet been screened in the State. One of them has not yet been screened in Europe.
ANHELL69 (Colombia-Romania-France-Germany), by Theo Montoya
Colombian director Theo Montoya premiered his short film Son of Sodom (2020) in the State at the 62nd ZINEBI, and it was an entry in the Short Film International Competition. Now his feature film debut is based on Camilo Najar, the main character in the short film, with a description of the Medellín of his teenage years and youth, a violent conservative city. He does this with one of Colombia’s leading directors over the last decades in the cast, Víctor Gaviria. Anhell69 (2022) was premiered at the Venice International Critics’ Week, where it earned a Special Mention from the Jury, the Verona Film Club award for most innovative film, and the Mario Serandrei-Hotel Saturnia for best technical contribution.
ZINEBI will be staging its first screening in the State in association with the Gijón International Film Festival – FICX.
DEATH OF A CITY / A MORTE DE UMA CIDADE (Portugal), by João Rosas
Although this is a debut feature film, João Rosas is far from a newcomer to films. His medium-length film Maria do Mar (2015), for example, was contender in the Short Film International Competition at the 57th ZINEBI. After working as editor on films by director Susana Nobre, and not forsaking Portuguese production company Terratreme, his debut as feature film director homes in on Lisbon’s Bairro Alto neighbourhood to draw up an urban diary of co-existence with a group of workers undertaking the demolition and reconstruction of a building stricken by the economic crisis, now being rebuilt to cater for the boom in tourism.
A morte de uma cidade celebrated its world premiere two days ago at Doclisboa 2022, and ZINEBI will be staging its international premiere.
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN? / DA LI STE VIDELI OVU ŽENU? (Serbia-Croatia), by Dušan Zorić and Matija Gluščević
Surprising experimental fiction film on identity, the debut by Serbian directors Matija Gluščević and Dušan Zorić tells the story of a middle-aged woman who initially does not seem very different from the rest, but will soon attempt to feel the role imposed on her by society. Inspired by their own mothers, and scripted jointly by both directors — and eloquently entitled Metamorphosis in previous stages of development — the film was defined by the lead commissioner at the Venice International Critics’ Week — the venue for its world premiere — as “incredibly disturbing”.
HOW TO SAVE A DEAD FRIEND (Sweden-Norway-France-Germany), by Marusya Syroechkovskaya
A raw, honest, moving documentary, the first feature film by Muscovite Marusya Syroechkovskaya is the culmination of over twenty years’ work, from when she began shooting her daily life with partner Kim with her home movie camera to presentation of the result at Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel, where she earned a Special Mention from the Jury. The personal portrayal of harsh years in the Russia she calls “Depression Federation” — governed at the outset of the film by Yeltsin, but then by Putin, Medvedev and Putin once more — is a documentary shortlisted for the European Film Academy Awards 2022.
LIKE A FISH ON THE MOON / زن، مرد، بچه (Iran), by Dornaz Hajiha
Like the other ZIFF participants, despite her youth, Dornaz Hajiha undertakes her first feature-length film with a considerable training baggage and previous experience in cinema. In her case, in the medium-length film Lost (2015) and short films such as Marziyeh (2017) and Marlon (2017), which were contenders at festivals such as London or Fajr (Iran). Her first fictional feature is the story of an Iranian family concerned by their four-year-old son, who has abruptly stopped talking.
The film was chosen for the last Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Hajiha and the Chinese Shadows company are now working on her second feature film, with the provisional title Diaphanous.
MY SMALL LAND / マイスモールランド (Japan-France), by Emma Kawawada
Japanese director Emma Kawawada, with a number of short films to her credit, moves into her first feature film with this reflection on the reservations and prejudices still dogging societies in the so-called “First World” when called on to integrate foreigners, even when the foreigners are already fully settled in their host countries. The winner of the 2015 ZINEBI Mikeldi of Honour Award Hirokazu Kore-eda (with whom Kawawada has been working for almost a decade as assistant director and production adviser) is the executive producer of this fiction, which received its world premiere at the last Berlinale.
NUESTRA PELÍCULA (Colombia-France), by Diana Bustamante
The example of Diana Bustamante is a good indication that the importance attached to directors in films should be studied in context. Formerly the artistic director and programmer of the International Cartagena Film Festival, and also a successful Colombian producer (she was behind world successes such as Los viajes del viento (Ciro Guerra, 2009), La tierra y la sombra (César Augusto Acevedo, 2015) or Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021), she has finally plumped for the director’s chair with Nuestra película, which will be having its world premiere at DOC NYC (US) before moving on to ZINEBI for its European premiere. Bustamante’s documentary avails itself of a host of television archives to portray the truculent reality of Colombia in the late eighties, with the images and voices of the time, with particular attention paid to the murders of political leaders such as Luis Carlos Galán, José Antequera or Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa.
OUTSIDE / НАЗОВНІ (Ukraine-Denmark-Netherlands), by Olha Zhurba
Presented at the last festival specialising in documentaries CPH:DOX (Copenhagen), the first feature film by Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba (director of the short film Dad’s Sneakers, presented at Locarno in 2021) finally arrives after many years’ work with Roma, a teenager who has grown up in the streets of Kiev in the immediate aftermath of the demonstrations and rioting during the so-called “Euromaidan”, where Roma was one of the most recognisable faces. Zhurba, alongside her photographic director Volodymyr Usyk, followed him with her camera (and also long-distance, with frequent phone calls) since he was 13 and until, aged eighteen, could no longer find his place in Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion.
WATERS OF PASTAZA / JUUNT PASTAZA ENTSARI (Portugal), by Inês T. Alves
A group of children move around in an area of water and vegetation on the border between Ecuador and Peru. The River Pastaza is the setting for their games, their hunting, fishing and cooking, but it is also where they watch videos on their smartphones. This is the reality captured by the camera of Inês T. Alves, a Portuguese director who is presenting her first feature film but already has a number of short films under her belt, and experience in the organisation of audiovisual workshops for all kinds of communities.
Waters of Pastaza had its world premiere at the last Berlinale.
