Pablo Lago Dantas
Spain | 2023 | 73 min
World premiere
Languages : Galician, Spanish
Subtitles : English, French
In a village in Galicia, Pablo’s family lives attached to their traditions and beliefs. Having lived abroad for 20 years, he returns to his grandmother’s house for the traditional brandy-making season, and paints a warm and tender portrait of his family. Ghosts of the past mingle with the mists of the Galician coast in this stunning cinematic work.
Pablo Lago Dantas’ family lives in a coastal Galician village, attached to their traditions and beliefs. Still living in her large stone house, his grandmother Alicia is a true pillar of the family, called by ghosts in her sleep as she waits for her time to go. After years away, Pablo returns to the stifling village, which people tend to leave at a young age in pursuit of their dreams. It is autumn, the mists have descended, and the brandy is being distilled. Every year, the “aguardientos” take over one of the barns to install the stills, distilling grapes night and day with family and friends. From the barn, Alicia watches the comings and goings of this world, while her filmmaker grandson asks her questions – about the uncles who never married, and her life as a mother, in which the maxim "because that's the way it is" has made her a happy woman. Immersed in alcohol fumes and traditional songs, Pablo Lago Dantas tries to capture this world he has left behind. He uses his talent as director of photography to compose an almost mystical picture of the present, invoking the past in an attempt to work out what will remain of this place once the matriarch is called back to heaven.
Aurélien Marsais
