Sitges, the world mecca of fantasy and horror cinema, opens

With a good Argentine presence, the 57th International Fantastic Cinema Festival of Catalonia begins today, known as the Sitges festival, the Cannes of fantastic and horror cinema. He won there last year. “When evil lurks”of Demián Rugnathe first Argentine, and even more so, the first Latin American who managed to win in the half-century since that meeting.

Unfortunately, there is no chance of reaching the two-time championship this year, although perhaps some Argentine producer can get on the podium, because they participate in the Official Competition “The cry”Spanish-Argentine co-production of Pedro Martin Caleroand “Continent”Brazilian-Argentine co-production of Davi Pretto.

To take into account, Calero has just won the Best Director Award in San Sebastián, where, for the first time, a horror film entered the list of candidates for the Golden Shell. “This is a brutal validation for me and for the genre”thanked Calero that night. Three facts: it is a psychological horror story about women that no one believes, almost half of it was filmed in Argentina and most of the cast is female. Co-writer, Isabel Peña (“The kingdom of corruption”, “May God forgive us”, “As bestas”, “Mother”among others).

Shot outside the country, they appear in the Panorama section “A mother’s hug”Argentinian-Brazilian, from Christian Ponce (that of “History of the occult”) and the cartoon “Dalia and the red book”co-production between Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Spain, from David Bisbano (that of “Rodencia and the princess’s tooth”).

In Brigadoon, the memories section, they present “Marisa and Creamy”of Pablo Paresand “Nobody worried more 2.0”of Gustavo Mendozatechnical and informative update of his excellent biopic about Narciso Ibáñez Menta “No one worried more”. As noted, the ingenious title acts as an acrostic for the name Narciso Ibánez Menta, and at the same time affirms something difficult to deny. And if anyone doubts that statement, look for the short on YouTube “The asphalt” and then go out into the street.

Something else, in Midnight, the news from the brothers Nicholas and Luciano Onetti, “1978”. In the middle of the World Cup, a task force raids the house of some boys, supposed guerrillas. The brutal abuse begins. But there is one detail: the repressors took the wrong direction and the boys are not guerrillas, but members of a diabolical sect. The rest has to be seen.

Separate paragraph, four Spanish women from the doctor appear in Classics Leon Klimovskyborn in Buenos Aires, a dentist by profession, who one day changed the lathe for the camera, started filming here (to point out, “The tunnel”about a novel by Ernesto Sabato) and continued in Spain, Mexico, Italy and even Egypt making all kinds of films, among which stand out “The naughty miller”, “Jump to Glory” (winner of San Sebastián 1959), “Peace Never Begins”, “Walpurgis Night” and, among many others, those that will now be seen in Sitges: “Dr. “Jekyll and the wolf”with Paul Naschy, “The Strange Love of Vampires”, “The Dracula Saga”with Ibánez Menta, and “Last wish”with Alberto de Mendoza (now edited in 4K).

As for the rest of the world, Sitges announces the arrival of Geoffrey Rush and Fabio Testiwho will receive lifetime achievement awards, Mike Flanagan, Steven Soderberg, Asif Kapadia and other notables. Among the titles, some promise a good mix of fear with laughter, for example “Spermageddon”, “Make me Pizza”, “The Chainsaws Sing”, “A Fisherman’s Tale”and the spectral “Idiot Girls and School Ghost”, “The Ghost of Mediocrity” and “Still life with ghosts”. I hope our situation is not ghostly, now that they have buried one of the best commercial windows in Incaa, “Blood Window”which even had preferential space at the Cannes Film Market.