Sobre la marxa
Jordi Morató
Spain | 2014 | 77 min
Language : Catalan
Subtitles : English, French
“Garrell” or “Tarzan from Argelaguer”, is a man who created a jungle next to the highway, building unbelievable works of engineering with his bare hands, in the forest. For 45 years he worked in his jungle, endlessly creating, destroying and, with the help of a teenager, shooting scenes as if acting in a Tarzan film. A lifetime spent in a world of fantasy, which never stopped becoming real.
“Garrell” or “Tarzan from Argelaguer”, a man who created a jungle next to the highway, building unbelievable works of engineering with his bare hands, in the forest. High towers and intricate labyrinths made of intertwined branches, deep tunnels, sculptures. For 45 years he worked in “his” jungle and, with the help of a teenager, shooting scenes as if acting in a Tarzan film. We see him running through the woods, diving from epic heights. Through the increasingly complex plots of the amateur films, we perceive the emotional focus of his work: the concern for a disappearing way of relating to nature, the ideal intergenerational transmission of values, the unavoidable cycle of destruction, metamorphosis and reconstruction. An American art historian starts working on him and considers his forest as one of the most important works of art brut worldwide, but the highway has to expand and it is of course considered more relevant by the authorities. Once again: destruction and reconstruction. A lifetime spent in a world of fantasy, which never stopped becoming real.
Paolo Moretti
