La parra

Gracia siedelt seinen völlig konventionslosen Film in Galizien an,eigentlich aber an einem imaginären Ort, an dem sich unser Antiheld in einer idiosynkratischen Welt wiederfindet: Heimkehrer Damian kümmert sich um die Asche seines Vaters, wird aber zusehends in die Rolle eines gewissen Cosme gedrängt, der eine Reihe blinder Wanderer auf dem Berg zurückgelassen hat. Der mystische Elektro-Score von Jonay Armas verstärkt Damians aufkommende Paranoia, der Ort erweist sich als Metapher für ein Fegefeuer. Es gibt drei Themen, heißt es im Vorspann: die Liebe, die Toten und die Fliegen. (Roman Scheiber)

In Anwesenheit von Alberto Gracia, Javier Tasio und Beli Martínez. 

Mit der freundlichen Unterstützung von Acción Cultural Española.

Ferrol is a town on the Atlantic coast of Galicia. (In)famously the hometown of Francisco Franco, what used to be the jewel in the crown of the Spanish navy industry is now a place with few resources and “nothing to do”, as a couple of giggling teenagers state in a TV interview. Damián left Ferrol more than 20 years ago, but is forced to return when he learns that his father has passed away. Once there, the people around him begin to mistake him for someone else, someone whose destiny is sealed. LA PARRA, Alberto Gracia’s third feature, is an unapologetically hallucinatory trip to a distressed town where characters of different generations live precariously, abandoned by the state and with little hope for the future. Damián’s surreal ordeal seems to go totally unnoticed in a city facing daily doom. Gracia’s unrivalled capacity to evoke atmosphere through music and lighting is further expanded here by the use of TV found footage that makes it even harder to locate the story at a fixed moment in history. Whether set right in the present or in the past, however, LA PARRA is paradigmatic of a cinema that sees the periphery as a space to understand the destiny of an entire continent. (Rebecca De Pas)

In the presence of Alberto Gracia, Javier Tasio and Beli Martínez. 

With the kind support of Acción Cultural Española.

Alberto Gracia: MICROFUGAS (2008, K), O QUINTO EVANXEO DE GASPAR HAUSER (2013), LA ESTRELLA ERRANTE (2018), LET’S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE (2021, K), THE RIM (2023, K)