Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
The Spanish film El Reino shown in the Official Selection yesterday deals with the highly topical subject of political corruption. Its director Rodrigo Soroyen acknowledged that it was risky to encourage the audience to empathise with a corrupt politician, but that he liked the idea of forcing viewers to identify with someone who is corrupt but who makes the audience want things to turn out all right for him once they see him suffer and lose everything he has. Both Sorogoyen and scriptwriter Isabel Peña stressed that they had deliberately decided not to focus on any political party in particular, as they thought this would have been unfair and dishonest, while the actor Antonio de la Torre who plays the leading role in the film explained that, “the actor’s job is to understand, not to judge; this is what I think is exciting about my work.”
JAIME IGLESIAS