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).
Fernando Franco is back at the Festival and once again is addressing an issue that will make the audience think and feel uneasy. La consagración de la primavera/ The rite of spring talks about sexual assistance for people with functional dependency. Telmo Irureta, the well-known Basque comic and actor with cerebral palsy, plays the role of David, a young man who will receive sexual assistance from Laura (Valèria Sorolla), an 18-year-old student who is trying to discover her sexuality.
At the press conference he gave after the screening of his film yesterday Franco explained that he had opted to tell this story because he liked to focus on issues that people don’t take any notice of. In his opinion, he felt that cinema had a responsibility with what was shown on the big screen as it becomes part of our collective memory. However, he stressed that he had never intended to make a treatise on this subject, and that sexual assistance was merely the catalyst for the relationship between David and Laura.