Los Bilbao

Pedro Speroni
Argentina | 2023 | 73 min
World premiere
Language : Spanish
Subtitles : English, French

Iván Bilbao has just spent 5 years in prison. Upon his release, he is reunited with his wife Yamila, his daughter Luz, and Chascomùs, his hometown, where his reputation is notorious. Eager to settle down, he resumes boxing and pawnbroking. Pedro Speroni films this chaotic return up close, underscored by tight, uppercut-like editing work. 

The camera sticks to the sturdy shoulders of a thirty-something man as he walks down the corridors that lead him out of the prison of Buenos Aires, where he has just served a five-year sentence. This man is Iván Bilbao, one of the protagonists of Rancho (2021), Pedro Speroni’s previous feature film. The filmmaker has now decided to film Bilbao's new-found freedom in Chascomùs, his home town. This is where the latter resumes a now “orderly” existence with Yamila, his pregnant girlfriend, and Yamila's daughter Luz, whom he treats like his own. But his return proves to be chaotic. Between his pawnbroking business - in which he lends money to the even less fortunate than him -, arguments with friends and family that sometimes turn violent, drug-fueled escapades, and his return to boxing, Iván seems to grapple with the normality of civilian life, as if he were its involuntary prisoner. He tries to do the right thing but ends up doing the opposite; one hand strokes, while the other holds back its blows. Speroni does not judge, holding the camera at a distance in order to observe the Bilbaos in static sequence shots. He is an impartial and emphatic witness to their squalls, but also to the flashes of tenderness which sometimes emerge, highlighting the harshness of their social condition.

 

Emmanuel Chicon

The Bilbaos, 2023 
Rancho, 2021 
Pilgrimage, 2014
 
 

Screenings and tickets


Wednesday 26 April 2023 20:30
In the presence of the director

Saturday 29 April 2023 18:30

Trailer

Screenplay
Pedro SperoniMiguel Colombo
Photography
Pedro Speroni
Sound
Jorge Gutiérrez Giménez
Editing
Miguel Colombo
Production
Pedro SperoniEl ojo Silva SRLIgnacio Sarchi188 srl
Sales contact
Pedro SperoniEl Ojo Silvapedrosperoni87@gmail.com+5491134210449

International Feature Film Competition

→ Tout le programme