by Cláudio Alves
Commercial releases aside, Patiño's Samsara is 2023 best film.Better late than never, am I right? As we all know, here at The Film Experience, a cinematic year only ends after the Oscars, so maybe I'm not so late after all. Whatever the case, it's time to say goodbye to 2023, with the Miyazaki ranking as my prelude to this farewell. At long last, let's consider newer releases and, most importantly, turn away from the now to ruminate on the before – film history, here we come. Indeed, I've missed writing about older pictures like you wouldn't believe. But let's hold our horses. Before such revelry into the distant past, one has to look back at the year that's gone and all its big screen wonders. Personally, I thought they were a vibrant twelve months of cinema…...
Commercial releases aside, Patiño's Samsara is 2023 best film.Better late than never, am I right? As we all know, here at The Film Experience, a cinematic year only ends after the Oscars, so maybe I'm not so late after all. Whatever the case, it's time to say goodbye to 2023, with the Miyazaki ranking as my prelude to this farewell. At long last, let's consider newer releases and, most importantly, turn away from the now to ruminate on the before – film history, here we come. Indeed, I've missed writing about older pictures like you wouldn't believe. But let's hold our horses. Before such revelry into the distant past, one has to look back at the year that's gone and all its big screen wonders. Personally, I thought they were a vibrant twelve months of cinema…...
- 3/29/2024
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
The greatest cinema is often an exciting cocktail for the senses: sound and image in perfect harmony, intricately woven to create an immersive experience that transports us to another world. But what happens when one of those senses is numbed? Silent movies formed the foundations of visual grammar for audiences, and sound was a luxury audiences lived without for many years. Few films have attempted the inverse, plunging the viewer into darkness and relying on sound alone to guide them from one experience to another. Enter Galician filmmaker Lois Patiño's bold and beautiful “Samsara”, a meditative drama set between Laos and Zanzibar that tracks a soul moving between states of existence, and the lives that are touched in big and small ways by this cosmic rite of passage. The term ‘samsara' itself is the cycle of death and reincarnation as seen by Buddhism, and while it may sound familiar...
- 3/9/2024
- by Simon Ramshaw
- AsianMoviePulse
Screen shines a light on 30 European titles that look set to grab the attention of festival directors in 2023, including new features by Tom Tykwer, Paz Vega, Paolo Sorrentino, Cecilia Verheyden and Baltasar Kormakur.
For our separate list of French festival hopefuls for 2024, click here.
Ariel (Sp-Por)
Dir. Lois Patiño
Patiño won the Encounters special jury prize at Berlin last year for Samsara and picked up the emerging director prize at Locarno in 2013 with Coast Of Death. His latest is a free adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, shot in Galicia and The Azores islands. Ariel stars Goya winner Irene Escolar...
For our separate list of French festival hopefuls for 2024, click here.
Ariel (Sp-Por)
Dir. Lois Patiño
Patiño won the Encounters special jury prize at Berlin last year for Samsara and picked up the emerging director prize at Locarno in 2013 with Coast Of Death. His latest is a free adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, shot in Galicia and The Azores islands. Ariel stars Goya winner Irene Escolar...
- 1/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Drawing from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Lois Patiño’s film features a 15-minute light-and-sound interlude in which viewers can join the star on his journey to the afterlife
Lois Patiño had been thinking about phantoms when he came up with the idea for a film that people could watch with their eyes closed. The director’s first two features, 2013’s Coast of Death and 2020’s Red Moon Tide, showed the coastal landscape of his native Galicia in sweeping, spectral glory. Myths, ghosts and omens of death swirl as locals recall stories of shipwrecks, fishermen lost at sea, and rumours of a legendary sea monster.
“I’ve been digging into contemplative cinema,” says Patiño, 40, of his earlier work, “and wanted to go further into this idea of an introspective, meditative experience.” He began thinking about “the idea of the invisible in cinema. Suddenly, this very literal idea of making...
Lois Patiño had been thinking about phantoms when he came up with the idea for a film that people could watch with their eyes closed. The director’s first two features, 2013’s Coast of Death and 2020’s Red Moon Tide, showed the coastal landscape of his native Galicia in sweeping, spectral glory. Myths, ghosts and omens of death swirl as locals recall stories of shipwrecks, fishermen lost at sea, and rumours of a legendary sea monster.
“I’ve been digging into contemplative cinema,” says Patiño, 40, of his earlier work, “and wanted to go further into this idea of an introspective, meditative experience.” He began thinking about “the idea of the invisible in cinema. Suddenly, this very literal idea of making...
- 1/9/2024
- by Rebecca Liu
- The Guardian - Film News
"The world opens to those who open up to it." Curzon in the UK has unveiled a trailer for an acclaimed film called Samsara, described as a "highly immersive and meditative film by artist and director Lois Patiño." Not to be confused with Ron Fricke's meditative globe-spanning documentary also called Samsara (2012). The term "saṃsāra" is actually a Pali/Sanskrit word that means "wandering" as well as "world," wherein the term connotes "cyclic change" or, less formally, "running around in circles." In the temples of Laos, teenage monks accompany a soul in transit from one body to another through the bardo. A luminous and sonorous journey leads to reincarnate on the beaches of Zanzibar, where groups of women work in seaweed farms. Berlinale adds: "In this conversation held on the border between life, death & meditation, Patiño continues his exploration of the image as an immersive experience. [As with films] by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the cycle of birth,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
In standout results that suggests the strength of select Spanish arthouse films on the current international market, Bendita Films Sales, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife-based boutique world sales agency, has closed a formidable raft of deals to Galician auteur Lois Patiño’s multisensory journey film “Samsara.”
Winner of a Special Jury Award at Berlin’s 2023 major sidebar Encounters and the Audience Award at Mexico’s Ficunam festival, “Samsara” has just screened in main competition at the 68th Valladolid Intl. Film Festival (Oct. 21-28), running up more than a dozen international film festival selections.
Bendita Film Sales has clinched commercial release pacts in the U.K. and Ireland, with Curzon Film, scheduled for a Jan. 26 launch; with Films Sans Frontiéres in France, Mooov in Belgium and Netherlands – planned for May 15 and Feb. 15, respectively – and with Exit Media in Italy by June, among other markets.
Produced by Leire Apellaniz at San Sebastian-based Señor y Señora,...
Winner of a Special Jury Award at Berlin’s 2023 major sidebar Encounters and the Audience Award at Mexico’s Ficunam festival, “Samsara” has just screened in main competition at the 68th Valladolid Intl. Film Festival (Oct. 21-28), running up more than a dozen international film festival selections.
Bendita Film Sales has clinched commercial release pacts in the U.K. and Ireland, with Curzon Film, scheduled for a Jan. 26 launch; with Films Sans Frontiéres in France, Mooov in Belgium and Netherlands – planned for May 15 and Feb. 15, respectively – and with Exit Media in Italy by June, among other markets.
Produced by Leire Apellaniz at San Sebastian-based Señor y Señora,...
- 10/30/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
“All of Us Strangers,” Andrew Haigh, U.K., U.S.)
Setting a high benchmark for Valladolid’s main competition, “a curious kind of ghost story, at once incredibly tender and profoundly devastating as it slowly reveals its secrets,” Variety wrote in its review. Written and directed by Haigh. behind an impressive body of work taking in “Weekend,” “45 Years” and HBO series “Looking.”
“Andrea’s Love,” (“El amor de Andrea,” Manuel Martín Cuenca, Spain)
Sold by Film Factory, the latest from the always interesting Martín Cuenca about Andrea, 15, attempting to reconnect with her estranged father. “A title opening up a new stage in Martín Cuenca’s career, his simplest, most tender and sincere of works,” Valladolid Festival notes run.
“Gasoline Rainbow,” (Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross, U.S.)
Produced by Mubi and sold by The Match Factory, the Venice Horizons world premiere follows five teens who pile into a van...
Setting a high benchmark for Valladolid’s main competition, “a curious kind of ghost story, at once incredibly tender and profoundly devastating as it slowly reveals its secrets,” Variety wrote in its review. Written and directed by Haigh. behind an impressive body of work taking in “Weekend,” “45 Years” and HBO series “Looking.”
“Andrea’s Love,” (“El amor de Andrea,” Manuel Martín Cuenca, Spain)
Sold by Film Factory, the latest from the always interesting Martín Cuenca about Andrea, 15, attempting to reconnect with her estranged father. “A title opening up a new stage in Martín Cuenca’s career, his simplest, most tender and sincere of works,” Valladolid Festival notes run.
“Gasoline Rainbow,” (Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross, U.S.)
Produced by Mubi and sold by The Match Factory, the Venice Horizons world premiere follows five teens who pile into a van...
- 10/20/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Underscoring a renaissance on Spain’s genre scene, a duo of titles – Daniel Calparsoro’s “All the Names of God” and Carlota Pereda’s “The Chapel” – lead the lineup of the second Spanish Screenings on Tour, which unspools at Rome’s Mia forum, taking place Oct. 9-13.
A platform of market premieres, projects, pics in post and potential remake titles, the Spanish Screenings also underscore the ever stronger emergence in Spain of open arthouse titles – Isaki Lacuesta’s “Saturn Return,” Arantxa Echeverría “Chinas,” Benito Zambrano’s “Jumping the Fence” and Gerardo Herrero’s “Under Therapy,” which was one of the best-selling titles at March’s Malaga Spanish Screenings.
With titles in Next from Spain set to present trailers, Spanish Screenings on Tour will also position a bevy of anticipated feature debuts, at different stages of production, from Spain’s seemingly bottomless well of new talent, such as Jaume Claret Muxart.
A platform of market premieres, projects, pics in post and potential remake titles, the Spanish Screenings also underscore the ever stronger emergence in Spain of open arthouse titles – Isaki Lacuesta’s “Saturn Return,” Arantxa Echeverría “Chinas,” Benito Zambrano’s “Jumping the Fence” and Gerardo Herrero’s “Under Therapy,” which was one of the best-selling titles at March’s Malaga Spanish Screenings.
With titles in Next from Spain set to present trailers, Spanish Screenings on Tour will also position a bevy of anticipated feature debuts, at different stages of production, from Spain’s seemingly bottomless well of new talent, such as Jaume Claret Muxart.
- 9/11/2023
- by John Hopewell and Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
“20,000 Species of Bees,” (Estibaliz Urresola)
One of the big winners at Berlin, taking Leading Performance, and now racking up healthy sales, the story of a family off for a village summer holiday which builds to a moving ode to women’s freedoms. Sales: Luxbox
“21 Paraíso,” (Nestor Ruiz Medina)
Living in an idyllic Andalusia, a couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Screened at Seville and Tallinn. Sales: Begin Again Films.
“All the Names of God,” (Daniel Calparsoro)
One of the big Spanish action-thrillers hitting this Cannes market, from a specialist (“Sky High”). Pre-sold to France (Kinovista), Germany and Italy (Koch Media) with Tripictures releasing in Spain. Sales: Latido
“Un amor,” (Isabel Coixet)
The multi-prized Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”).
directs Goya winner Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) in a village-set study of an isolated woman’s succumbing to devouring passion. Sales: Film Constellation.
“Ashes in the Sky,...
One of the big winners at Berlin, taking Leading Performance, and now racking up healthy sales, the story of a family off for a village summer holiday which builds to a moving ode to women’s freedoms. Sales: Luxbox
“21 Paraíso,” (Nestor Ruiz Medina)
Living in an idyllic Andalusia, a couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Screened at Seville and Tallinn. Sales: Begin Again Films.
“All the Names of God,” (Daniel Calparsoro)
One of the big Spanish action-thrillers hitting this Cannes market, from a specialist (“Sky High”). Pre-sold to France (Kinovista), Germany and Italy (Koch Media) with Tripictures releasing in Spain. Sales: Latido
“Un amor,” (Isabel Coixet)
The multi-prized Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”).
directs Goya winner Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) in a village-set study of an isolated woman’s succumbing to devouring passion. Sales: Film Constellation.
“Ashes in the Sky,...
- 5/19/2023
- by John Hopewell and Pablo Sandoval
- Variety Film + TV
Berlinale Review: Samsara is an Extraordinary, Multisensory Journey Through Bodies, Souls, and Space
“Did you know that we keep on hearing after we’re dead?” The question comes up early into Lois Patiño’s Samsara but haunts the film from first shot to last, doubling as a précis of the multisensory feast this extraordinary journey through bodies, time, and space packs throughout. “Watching” is too restrictive a word for the kind of experience Patiño has arranged. Here’s the rare film that invites your whole body into its universe––one whose haptic, aural, olfactive pleasures are just as vivid as its visual riches. It’s a tale that unspools as a Heraclitean river: you cannot step into it twice, for it is not the same film, and you are no longer the same person.
Here’s where the river starts: in a Buddhist temple in present-day Laos, where teenage monk Be Ann (Toumor Xiong) crosses paths with a boy from a nearby village,...
Here’s where the river starts: in a Buddhist temple in present-day Laos, where teenage monk Be Ann (Toumor Xiong) crosses paths with a boy from a nearby village,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Spain boasts a bullish presence at the Berlinale. Following, short profiles of its features that have made the festival cut and a selection of top titles being moved at the European Film Market:
20,000 Species Of Bees
Director: Estíbaliz Urresola
Spain’s Berlin competition player is from Urresola, director of Cannes Critics’ Week short “Chords.” Film takes place in a Basque Country village and is a celebration of female sexual diversity. Catalonia’s Inicia Films (“La Maternal”) produces with Gariza Films (“Nora”).
Sales: Luxbox
21 PARAÍSO
Director: Nestor Ruiz Medina
A couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Set in an Andalusian idyll, a rich portrait of the challenges of love. Screened at Seville and Tallinn.
Sales: Begin Again Films.
Anqa
Director: Helin Celik
A Forum doc feature from Vienna-based Kurd Celik, the films tells the harrowing story of three Jordanian women, survivors of male near-fatal violence.
20,000 Species Of Bees
Director: Estíbaliz Urresola
Spain’s Berlin competition player is from Urresola, director of Cannes Critics’ Week short “Chords.” Film takes place in a Basque Country village and is a celebration of female sexual diversity. Catalonia’s Inicia Films (“La Maternal”) produces with Gariza Films (“Nora”).
Sales: Luxbox
21 PARAÍSO
Director: Nestor Ruiz Medina
A couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Set in an Andalusian idyll, a rich portrait of the challenges of love. Screened at Seville and Tallinn.
Sales: Begin Again Films.
Anqa
Director: Helin Celik
A Forum doc feature from Vienna-based Kurd Celik, the films tells the harrowing story of three Jordanian women, survivors of male near-fatal violence.
- 2/17/2023
- by John Hopewell, Douglas Wilson and Pablo Sandoval
- Variety Film + TV
Underscoring the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest’s commitment to fostering young, upcoming talent, its five-year-old Talent Lab (Amtl) for projects in development will be complemented by a new Works in Progress (Wip) section for projects in post.
The new Wip aims to give young creators the tools and opportunity to bolster the promotion of their audiovisual projects and secure local and international distribution.
On July 27 and July 28 in Mallorca, six projects in post-production will compete for €15,000 at the new Wip. Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest’s industry component is backed by Media Europa Creativa Catalunya and organized in collaboration with the Seville European Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival and the Albacete Film Festival (Abycine).
Both sections are designed as mentoring, training and acceleration labs for each of the areas. In addition, participants will have access to the festival’s robust industry events and experience the festival itself.
Amtl has...
The new Wip aims to give young creators the tools and opportunity to bolster the promotion of their audiovisual projects and secure local and international distribution.
On July 27 and July 28 in Mallorca, six projects in post-production will compete for €15,000 at the new Wip. Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest’s industry component is backed by Media Europa Creativa Catalunya and organized in collaboration with the Seville European Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival and the Albacete Film Festival (Abycine).
Both sections are designed as mentoring, training and acceleration labs for each of the areas. In addition, participants will have access to the festival’s robust industry events and experience the festival itself.
Amtl has...
- 7/25/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
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