Dantza (Spain), Izbrisana / Erased (Slovenia – Croatia – Serbia) and Un om la locul lui / A Decent Man (Romania) are the three European productions selected for the first edition of Glocal in Progress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The three feature films are all at the post-production stage and will be presented to an audience of producers, distributors, sales agents and programmers, among other professionals, offering them the chance of contributing to their completion and international distribution.
Dantza will be the fifth participation by the Basque director Telmo Esnal at the San Sebastian Festival after presenting in New Directors in 2005 Aupa Etxebeste! co-written and co-directed with Asier Altuna; the short film Amona putz! in the Zinemira Basque Film Showcase in 2009; Urte berri on, amona! (Happy New Year Granma!) in Zabaltegi-New Directors in 2011 and the short Iraila from the collective film Kalebegiak, co-directed with Asier Altuna and presented at the Velodrome in the 64th edition.
Izbrisana / Erased by Miha Mazzini, a co-production between Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, and the Romanian production Un om la locul lui / A Decent Man, by Hadrian Marcu are the first films of their directors.
This industry activity has the objective of lending greater visibility to European productions in non-hegemonic languages (those not filmed in German, Spanish, French, English, Italian and Russian). In 2016 alone, 21 films spoken totally or partially in said languages participated in the different competitions of the Festival, with Jätten / The Giant (Swedish) carrying off the Special Jury Prize and Park (Greek) the Kutxabank-New Directors Award.
Glocal in Progress complements the work started in 2014 by the Basque Government Department of Culture and Language Policy with the creation of Glocal Cinema, an initiative intended to promote networks between the film industries which produce films in non-hegemonic languages.
DANTZA
TELMO ESNAL (SPAIN)
Based on symbols and metaphors from Basque dances, Dantza is an imaginative musical film about the cycle of life and the development of society. Dance is used to deal with universal subjects in this film: amongst other things, survival, beliefs, celebrations, love and the never-ending struggle against death. The simple, clear narrative is backed up by songs, movement and rhythm.
IZBRISANA / ERASED
MIHA MAZZINI (SLOVENIA – CROATIA – SERBIA)
Ana (36) gives birth in a local hospital and everything goes well. There is only a small, bureaucratic problem: Ana is not on the computer files. It must be a software glitch, nothing serious. After a few days, Ana is entangled in a web of Kafkaesque proportions: Not appearing in the computer means no social security, no permanent address. Ana is suddenly a foreigner, even though she spent all of her life in Slovenia. Legally, she doesn’t exist. So, her child is an orphan. And orphans can be put up for adoption.
*On 26th February 1992 the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Slovenia erased 25,671 of its own nationals. The majority of those erased still have no legal status.
UN OM LA LOCUL LUI / A DECENT MAN
HADRIAN MARCU (ROMANIA)
Petru, a drilling engineer living in a community of oil industry workers, has a conflict. On the one hand he is about to get married to his pregnant girlfriend, Laura, and on the other he is involved with the wife of one of his colleagues Sonia, who suffers an accident at work. Petru’s new life seems to be starting, while Sonia feels hers is ending. Although he feels indebeted to her, he also feels responsible towards his unborn child. Laura finds out about his relationship with Sonia, unleashing a series of events. Petru and Sonia end up seeking comfort in each other’s arms. Both suffer irreversible damage as they desperately attempt to survive.