Panorama, film mastery at the 21st Film Festival

 The section that brings works by filmmakers that have appeared at the Festival as well as by new voices currently standing out within the circuit will offer half a dozen titles which “generate a critical and programmatic consensus”

 Gaspar Noé will come to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to introduce his controversial Vortex within a section that includes some of the latest works by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Hong Sangsoo, Miguel Gomes and Maureen Fazendeiro, Panah Panahi and filmmakers Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi and Alice Rohrwacher

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday 4 April 2022.- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria offers in its 21st Film Festival a collection of exquisite films within its Panorama section, as usually devoted to titles that have stood out in the festival circuit. It “is nourished by film mastery and illustrious names”, according to its programmer José Cabrera.

Thus, the Film Festival will screen the latest works by authors such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Hong Sangsoo, Miguel Gomes & Maureen Fazendeiro, Panah Panahi, the team made up of Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi & Alice Rohrwacher, and Gaspar Noé, who will come to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to introduce Vortex, a film he has already shown at Cannes, Mar del Plata and San Sebastian.

The simultaneous appearance of these filmmakers turns this section into an essential one: a winner of Cannes’ Palme D’Or, Apichatpong Weerasethakul; a three-time winner of Berlin’s Silver Bear, Hong Sangsoo; a winner of Berlin’s Golden Bear, Miguel Gomes; the multi-awarded Gaspar Noé, winner of numerous awards at Cannes and other big festivals; recently recognized filmmaker Panah Panahi, who won Best Film at London and Mar del Plata, among others, with his Jadde Khaki; Maureen Fazendeiro, codirector of Diários de Otsoga alongside Gomes and winner of the Best Director Award at Mar del Plata, and the Italian filmmaking trio made up of Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi and Alice Rohrwacher, whose Futura was selected at Cannes. Because of them, and those who came before in previous editions, Panorama is, according to its programmer, “a main artery of the festival. It is a way of not losing contact with old acquaintances and welcoming new voices”.

Furthermore, José Cabrera highlights the fact that, despite the limitation this section has (it cannot include works already shown in theaters), the 21st Film Festival has managed to gather such an outstanding group of filmmakers while avoiding any significant absences.

In addition to showing Vortex, by French-Argentinian author Gaspar Noé, which was selected at Cannes and Mar del Plata and won the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Prize at San Sebastian, the Festival will have its director visiting the city. Indeed, Noé, a radical and extreme author of titles such as Irreversible or Clímax, will introduce at Cinesa El Muelle his latest production, a reflection on death through a split-screen depiction of a declining old couple.

And from the abyss of decrepitude, to the present of three young people who share the routine of the home in the Portuguese Diários de Otsoga, an inverted diary that goes back in time. The film, awarded at Mar del Plata, has been at Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Seville and Busan. By appearing at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the audience of the festival will reencounter Miguel Gomes (2012 Silver Lady Harimaguada for Tabú) who, on this occasion, codirects the film alongside Maureen Fazendeiro.

Panorama will show, too, Memoria, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new sensory experience. The film, which was awarded the Jury Prize at Cannes, a festival where he has already won the Palme D’Or in 2010 for his Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, has appeared in numerous festivals. Jessica (Tilda Swinton), a Scottish woman in Colombia terrified by a certain night sound, sets out on a journey into the Colombian Amazon to find an explanation.

South Korean Hong Sangsoo’s poetry returns to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His last work In front of Your Face / Dangsin-eolgul-apeseo continues to explore women’s universe and does it so through the secrets a woman coming back to South Korea keeps. The main character, a resident in the United States, settles in her sister’s home on the pretext of seeing her nephew and with the firm intention of looking at the present: in front of your face.

Likewise, Panorama will show Panah Panahi’s debut film: Hit the Road / Jadde Khaki. The best film at the London and Mar del Plata festivals starts with a journey towards an unknown destination. The car trip the family embarks on, the youngest son’s constant prattle and the eldest’s silence promise the audience of the Gran-Canarian Film Festival fond and bittersweet moments, just like it happened at Cannes, Vienna or Valladolid, in addition to the aforementioned London and Mar del Plata.

The sixth film of the selection, Futura, by Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi and Alice Rohrwacher, is practically a research work, an idea of the future young Italians may expect. Through a series of interviews with teenagers aged 15 to 20, the filmmakers share Italian youth’s fears, expectations and desires.

Panorama, like the rest of the Festival’s program, will be screened at Cinesa El Muelle starting on next April 22