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).
Isabel Coixet presented her latest film Un Amor, based on the novel of the same name by Sara Mesa, in the Official Selection yesterday. The film, co-directed with Laura Ferrero, portrays the change in direction in 30-year-old Nat’s life after she ends up in a small village in deepest rural Spain. After dealing with her landlord’s hostility and the mistrust of the village locals, she ends up accepting a disturbing sexual proposal from her neighbour, Andreas, which will give rise to an all-consuming, obsessive passion.
The filmmaker confessed that she and Ferrero both deeply admired Sara Mesa and “we didn’t feel it was a difficult job because you’re starting out from something that you’re passionate about, and you know that there’s a story that just has to be told. However, for Coixet, what was difficult was what the writer would think when she saw it. But to her great relief she liked it. The second difficulty was what would readers think who had already constructed the film in their heads. “So, I hope they liked it.”
As for the references in Un amor she confessed she felt obliged to be a little self-referential: “it’s a cross between The secret life of words and The Bookshop.”