With the delicacy of a bee probing a flower for pollen, Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren picks her way through the tensions and dilemmas within a family where the youngest member, an 8-year-old boy called Aitor, is feeling his way toward a new identity as a girl. Sofia Otero, who deservedly won the Silver Bear for a lead performer at the Berlinale’s awards night Saturday, shows an instinctive, unforced and generous understanding of how difficult her character’s life must be. As Coco – the between-stools nickname the family has devised to avoid anything too specifically gendered – Otero is alternately obstinate, tearful, mischievous and withdrawn. She craves her mother’s comprehension but pushes her away when she tries to talk to her about why she doesn’t want to go to school.
Related Story Berlin Film Festival Winners: French Documentary ‘On The Adamant’ By Nicolas Philibert Wins Golden Bear Related...
Related Story Berlin Film Festival Winners: French Documentary ‘On The Adamant’ By Nicolas Philibert Wins Golden Bear Related...
- 2/28/2023
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
For her first feature, Spanish writer-director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren certainly hasn’t chosen an easy subject to deal with, even if it’s one that’s about as topical as you can get right now.
And yet this moving chronicle of an 8-year-old’s gradual transitioning, and the effect it has on a family over their summer vacation, manages to be both timely and timeless, making its hot-button issue feel like part of a larger, spiritual cycle of life and loss. Carried by impressively fluid, determinedly naturalistic filmmaking, with performances that never hit a false note, 20,000 Species of Bees (20.000 especies de abejas) marks an assured debut, slowly but surely hitting an emotional crescendo during its final minutes.
The film’s specific style and setting are evident from the get-go, immersing us in a world that we discover over the course of an unhurried two hours. Using a handheld camera and a documentary-like approach,...
And yet this moving chronicle of an 8-year-old’s gradual transitioning, and the effect it has on a family over their summer vacation, manages to be both timely and timeless, making its hot-button issue feel like part of a larger, spiritual cycle of life and loss. Carried by impressively fluid, determinedly naturalistic filmmaking, with performances that never hit a false note, 20,000 Species of Bees (20.000 especies de abejas) marks an assured debut, slowly but surely hitting an emotional crescendo during its final minutes.
The film’s specific style and setting are evident from the get-go, immersing us in a world that we discover over the course of an unhurried two hours. Using a handheld camera and a documentary-like approach,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In time, stories like “20,000 Species of Bees” will come to feel as commonplace within the coming-of-age genre as tales of first love or heartbreak: a young girl, unhappy in her skin and at odds with her family, finally recognizes her gender over the course of one pivotal summer, and persuades others to recognize it too. For now, Spanish writer-director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s mellow, softly piercing debut feature joins the likes of Céline Sciamma’s “Tomboy” and Emanuele Crialese’s “L’Immensità” in a select but growing canon of trans or nonbinary childhood studies. Unassuming and meanderingly character-oriented, the film doesn’t assert itself as an issue drama — in large part because, as Solaguren presents her eight-year-old protagonist’s gradual steps toward self-realization, her film doesn’t see much of an issue to begin with.
“How come you know who you are and I don’t?” Simply phrased but far more complex to answer,...
“How come you know who you are and I don’t?” Simply phrased but far more complex to answer,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Barcelona-based mini studio Filmax has acquired the international rights to Spanish-Portuguese co-production “The Open Body,” a horror story set in the early 20th century and plumbing Galician folk lore. The film marks the feature debut of Spanish director Ángeles Huerta.
Co-produced by Spain’s Ollovivo and Fasten Films, producer of Jorge Dorado’s “Pastor,” and Portugal’s Cinemate, behind Norberto López-Amado’s “3 Caminos,” the film is currently in post-production.
Buyers will have the opportunity to watch a first promo at this year’s Malaga Festival Spanish Screenings, which run March 21-24.
A new genre movie at Malaga, whatever its phase of production, is near bound to be on many buyers radar after Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” (“El Hoyo”) was presented at Málaga’s Work In Progress in 2019, where it was acquired by Latido Films.
Sold to Netflix, it became the most watched non English language film in the U.
Co-produced by Spain’s Ollovivo and Fasten Films, producer of Jorge Dorado’s “Pastor,” and Portugal’s Cinemate, behind Norberto López-Amado’s “3 Caminos,” the film is currently in post-production.
Buyers will have the opportunity to watch a first promo at this year’s Malaga Festival Spanish Screenings, which run March 21-24.
A new genre movie at Malaga, whatever its phase of production, is near bound to be on many buyers radar after Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” (“El Hoyo”) was presented at Málaga’s Work In Progress in 2019, where it was acquired by Latido Films.
Sold to Netflix, it became the most watched non English language film in the U.
- 3/8/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
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