38th edition 2023 feature films
In rural southern Spain, Antonia, a teenage mother, disappears in the middle of the night. Fifty years later in Barcelona, Carmen, an introverted casting director, is looking for people to share their memories when arriving in a new city. In her search, she meets Antonia, whose impulsiveness intrudes into Carmen’s solitude. Who said time heals all wounds?
Laura Ferrés studied film at ESCAC in Barcelona. Her first short film, Los Desheredados - in which she depicts her father coping with the closure of his family bus business - won the Leica Cine Discovery Prize at La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes in 2017. Her first feature, The Permanent Picture, premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival.
- Scénario
- Laura FERRÉS
- Photographie
- Agnès PIQUÉ CORBERA
- Son
- Dani FONTRODONA
- Montage
- Aina CALLEJA
- Musique
- Fernando MORESI HABERMAN, Sergio BERTRAN
- Production
- Adrià MONÉS (Fasten Films), Gabrielle DUMON (Le Bureau)
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
A word from the selection committee :
Images and their capacity to convey belief are deep underlying themes in Laura Ferres’ debut film, impressive both in scale and accuracy. From the ghost revealed by silver halide photography in the opening sequence, to the AI-generated pictures, and Carmen’s photographs taken as a casting director; pictures keep hurling themselves at the storyline. Like frames within frames, they infiltrate most scenes resembling windows, thus allowing the story to pierce through.
Therefore, the elliptical - and sometimes eerie - narrative doesn’t baffle but rather provides access to another kind of logic, one of sensations and rhythms; a puzzle in which the characters’ feelings serve as the cornerstone.
The female characters (Antonia, Carmen, and Antonia) are the heart and soul of the film: surprising and deeply moving, they are the ones holding the secrets contained in the pictures, flowing back and forth.
- Victor Bournerias