Pepe Andreu

Spanish Civil War, May, 1938. Four villages in Castellón, Benassal, Albocàsser, Ares del Maestrat and Vilar de Canes, were bombed from the sky and ravaged. 38 people died. Inhabitants never knew for sure who piloted the planes responsible for such atrocity, although the rebel propaganda attributed the act to the republican side. Now, 80 years later, the truth is finally exposed.

María is 30, has an intellectual disability, and a deep desire: to be a mother. The lack of understanding from her family and the foundation where she lives will lead her to fight for her rights, to an uncomfortable rebellion to regain control over her own body.

[m]otherhood will make us stop asking women without children why they don’t want to be mothers, because it gives us all the answers. These types of inquiries can become very annoying after a while; at times, the only way to get out gracefully is by smiling and not saying a word. This documentary brings together several women who’ve decided to sound off on the subject, and whose reasons –hard-hitting and solid– knock the concept of contemporary motherhood as an “ideal” off its pedestal.

At the foot of Europe’s largest glacier, seven Icelandic siblings once lived in deliberate isolation, dedicating their lives to observing ice and nature long before climate change had a name. Their abandoned farmhouse becomes a living archive, animated by photographs, objects, and a 16mm film that restores gestures, spaces, and a vanished way of being in the world.

Every morning Krilli prepares the myriad ingredients required to make the lobster soup at the Bryggjan café, a tiny eatery in Iceland’s dullest town. His wife helps him in the kitchen and yearns to return to Rejkyavik. In the café, Krilli’s brother Alli sits with the old fishermen, the last boxer in Iceland and the translator of Don Quixote into Icelandic. Every day they find a new answer to the world’s problems. Once a month the neighbours meet at the Bryggjan café to remember those who died in Grindavik and pronounce their names. Four crazy musicians play jazz. A few lost tourists turn up at the fishing harbour and are captivated by the atmosphere in the café. Real people, they think. A real place. On the other side of the mountain is the Blue Lagoon, the island’s great attraction. People from all over the world come in fascination to see the volcanoes, the ice and the genesis of the Earth.

Women of mature years talk about their marriage, their first time, their intimate relationship with sexuality. In the repetition of these ancestral rituals, the director questions her own lack of marriage, of children, and with it, a chain of mother-daughter relationships that is dying out.

Jan, a mysterious character haunted by a deep feeling of guilt, tries to get Violeta back, a youth love he lost 20 years ago, with a sickening plan.

They're called water carriers, domestics, 'gregarios', 'Sancho Panzas' of professional cycling. Always at the back of the group, with no right for a personal victory. These wonderful losers are the true warriors of professional cycling.