• Berlinale Carla Simón wins a historic Golden Bear at the Berlinale for the beautiful and irrefutable 'Alcarràs'
  • Report Isaki Lacuesta and Carla Simón: the return of Spanish cinema to the international scene
  • Criticism The Berlinale surrenders to 'Alcarràs', the new and beautiful prodigy of Carla Simón, the director of 'Summer 1993'

The good news is that you don't have to be on the verge of retirement for the Ministry to remember a filmmaker. The bad news (actually, there is no bad news as such) is that the National Film Award seems, suddenly, a compensation for the irrefutable fact that the Film Academy completely forgot about Alcarràs, one of the greatest recent achievements of our cinema, in the highly publicized Goya affair.

Thus, the jury chosen by Culture could not help but surrender to the evidence. The director Carla Simón (Barcelona, 1986), responsible for the last big prize for Spanish cinema at an international festival, has been chosen. Her brand new Golden Bear at the Berlinale for Alcarràs, in addition to her irrevocable debut as a director with Summer 1993, could not go unnoticed. Let's say that the ruling has the privilege of both justice (it is almost always so) and daring (it is rarely so).

"I want to believe," reflects the filmmaker on the phone with the news still not fully cooked, "that more than an award for the career I do not have is a vote of confidence to the one I will have." The director says that as soon as she received the call from the minister, the first thing she did was consult the list of winners. "Suddenly, you see yourself next to the names that are part of the history of cinema. It's a bit overwhelming," he says, takes a second and adds: "Although it's also true that the prize was given to Bayonne. Let's say I feel like I belong to their team."

In the argument of the decision, the importance of the marras prize in Germany is underlined since that of the Golden Bear, says the text, "was a milestone in the history of our cinema". That much is clear. And then it is explained (in a somewhat confusing way, everything is said) the very meaning of Simon's cinema and that, ultimately, he is the real winner. It is not very well understood, although the intention is guessed: "... The naturalness and precision in the construction of stories and characters combines with intelligence and rigor realism and fiction with a fully topical look at social problems". And one more: "In addition, it incorporates in an organic way the diversity of languages that characterize and enrich our society and culture."

Let's say that the relevant (also reasoned in that way) comes in the second paragraph: "Carla Simón also represents a new generation of filmmakers who have managed in a very short time to develop quality cinema and committed to the medium itself and society reaching a global audience. Undoubtedly, it is one of the references of the great moment that Spanish cinema is experiencing. At the same time, it has been able to promote the opening of cinemas at a difficult time after the covid pandemic."

She takes the floor: "I feel weird being a reference of nothing or visible head of a wave. At the end of the day you represent yourself and it sounds kind of pretentious to want to be the voice of a generation or something." He continues: "Anyway, when you study the history of cinema and you see that there is talk of new currents or new waves, you always wonder what it would feel like to be part of something like that. Well, I think I do know what it feels like now because I'm convinced that Spanish cinema is living a new era of which, without a doubt, I feel a part. And that's okay because you feel accompanied. In a way, this award is also for everyone who is with me."

That is, the prize matters both individually and for what it points out more generally. Indeed, Carla Simón represents like few filmmakers what is happening in cinema and, probably, beyond. On the one hand, she is the clearest proof that the change and good health of Spanish cinema is largely the responsibility of the irruption of women. She is a director and, also, like it or not, a model for the directors to come.

"What seems clear is that women directors are not a fad. We are here to stay. We are already a reality and a reality of the present and the future," he says, not shying away from commitment. "I firmly believe," she continues, "that what is happening to us is a historical reparation. And it is in a double sense. In the obvious sense, that before there were no women who made films and now there are; and from the point of view of the topics treated. We are living a historical reparation in terms of the arguments that have been ignored and hidden in the past. It is important to do a reparation exercise in every way."

On the other hand, his cinema, focused on the detailed identification of issues such as truth, realism or simply life, is, without a doubt, the reference of a new way of understanding the cinematographic fact. Let's say that the stubborn particularity of them and those who go with it, their devotion to detail, their unconditional love for the true, the real, the simple and hard beauty, give this National Award not more value perhaps, but more meaning. It is the conviction with which Carla Simón stands in front of reality and even the cinema to demand from her and him the same life, which places Simón (and with it his two films so far: Verano 1993 and Alcarràs) in a place of exception.

And what will he do with the 30,000 euros that come with the prize? "Well, I don't know. I haven't thought about it yet because I just found out that there was also money," he replies. Be that as it may, Carla Simón is working on what will be her third film and closing of her particular trilogy on memory, historical and family memory. The Pilgrimage is as it is titled. "The new film talks about what, in a way, I have dealt with so far: the difficulty of accessing a past, memories, a memory, which has somehow been canceled," he explains.

Carla Simón is already the history of cinema, of the cinema that will come.

  • cinema
  • Goya Awards

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