My Mexican Bretzel

"Lies are just another way of telling the truth", is the opening credo of MY MEXICAN BRETZEL. And from there on in, it is entirely up to viewers to decide what they are looking for in this sound and image puzzle of archival footage. Lies? Or the truth? But how is truth constructed and reconstructed in the art of deception that is called cinema? The opening motto is taken from the works of writer Paravadin Kanvar Kharjappali, and both the end credits and a quick Internet search shed a whole new light on this philosopher-guru who had such a profound influence on the life of protagonist / narrator Vivian Barrett. Barret is a character that emerges from the repurposed home movies shot by director Nuria Giménez Lorang's grandfather in the years following the end of World War II in Europe. Her story is told in subtitles, a recreation of sound and image at once lyrical and ingenious, spoken by a voiceless narrator. A woman under the influence. Is it a coincidence that her husband was one of the founding fathers of a new, subsequently spurned anti-depressant called Lovedyn? A story of absence and female alienation thus emerges. And other stories with it, about the unimagined territories between the personal and the socio-historical. And about love, that is always found in such longings for a paradise lost. (Dana Linssen)

In the presence of Nuria Giménez Lorang.

Nuria Giménez Lorang: MY MEXICAN BRETZEL (2019)