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).
Yesterday the Festival hosted the press conference for the TV series Patria, a day after it had its premiere in a marathon session that went on until one o’clock in the morning. The producer Miguel Salvat was
really pleased that despite the fact that the screening lasted for 480 minutes very few people left the cinema before the end, which convinced him that Patria, unlike a lot of other series, was going to be a big hit.
The creator of the series, Aitor Gabilondo, said that one of the key aspects of Patria had been that it tells the story of nine characters who experience the same reality in different ways and who gradually change their viewpoints as time goes by. The director himself confessed that he had had to face up to his own prejudices, “because telling stories forces us to see things from other points of view.” In turn, Gabilondo wanted people to remember that Patria is only a fictional story and if it opened up a debate about the past in the Basque Country then that was healthy for a TV series. He also felt that it was a series that asks questions; it doesn’t provide any answers.