FIC Xixón 2022

One more year and one more post about the corresponding edition of FIC Xixón, and once again that I publish this post with a delay of several months. The 2022 edition has been the 60th edition of the festival. This last year a new cinema chain has opened in town and in a good location (it's not in the city centre, but is not in the outskirts like the other existing chain) and they reached an agreement with the festival to conduct part o the screenings. It's true that the Festival had managed to succesfully survive the closing some years ago of the cinema chain in downtown that had played a real mayor role in the screenings for many years, but having these additional theatres has been really good news, at least for me. This has been the reason why this year I have attended to more films than in recent editions (I only can attend to the last season and I never consider the option of going to the cinema located in the outskirts). Well, it's not only that logistic improvement, it's also the fact that I spent more time going through the program and it looked pretty good. Et bon, voici ma liste:

• Triangle of Sadness. Saturday 12, Teatro Jovellanos. Quite an intense satirical Swedish black comedy (honestly I would not know how to classify it, so I'm just copy-pasting from wikipedia). Pretty funny, with many great moments (of course, the climax happens whe when the boat is sinking and New Noise, that fucking hymn by Refused starts to play!!!) and some excellent characters. From the stupid succesful couple of influencers (buff, to what extent can our world continue to intellectually decay?) to the East Asian hard worker woman that ends up being much more smart than any of the mega-rich guests.
• Bowling Saturne. Monday 14, OCine, Patricia Mazuy. I ended up watching 3 films directed by this crazy funny French woman (une drole de femme vraiment). This is her more recent work, and it's a really solid and strong film, gravitating around a totally disturbed murderer and the investigation directed by a policeman that happens to be his brother! Some of the scenes are really brutal and disturbing, both by the physical violence and for the unlimited violence of seeing a young life, with so many things ahead, brutally put to an end in such a painful and senseless way. The film was intense and the meeting with the director that came after the screening was equally excellent. A real funny pleasure to listen to Patricia Mazuy commenting on her film.
• Peaux de Vaches. Tuesday 15, OCine, Patricia Mazuy. I don't think I had selected this film at first, but after watching "Bowling Saturne" I immediatelly assumed I should attend to this one (moreover because there was again a meeting with the director). A tense family story in a rural area in Northern France in the late 80's. Really good, and again listening to Patricia commenting on this, her first film, was a real pleasure. It seems like the filming was quite difficoult in many aspects but she told it in such a way that made it terribly funny.
• Butterfly Vision. Friday 18, CMI Pumarín - Xixón Sur. I'm fed up of the war of the USA and NATO against Russia (and against Western Europe economy and sovereignty). I'm fed up of seeing so many Ukrainian and Russian lives destroyed by the existencial necessity of the decadent USA empire to continue to dominate everything and everyone. And I'm particullarly fed up of seeing a psychotic murderer like Zelensky being treated as a hero. A "hero" that commemorates WWII Nazi collaborators and that after having done everything in his hand to force Russia to attack (to defend their people in Donbass and to avoid having nuclear weapons right on their border) now sends "his" people to die, just to defend the interests of the "super power"... So when I read that this Ukrainian film shot before the start of the second phase of the war deals with the effects on a female Ukrainian soldier of the first phase started in 2014, the Donbass war, has been criticized at home because of not being nationalistic enough and somehow being critical with Ukrainian society, I thought it could be interesting. Of course the film does not deal with how the Donbass war started, but it shows how one part of Ukrainian society is rotten to the core with far-right ultra-nationalistic ideas. It's a good film and I recommend it for sure.
• Sport de filles. Friday 19, CMI Pumarín - Xixón Sur. So my third Patricia Mazuy film. Just an entertaining story, but not much more to say. I guess if you are into equestrianism it will be much more appealing to you.

There are 2 films that I intended to watch but that were sold out when I finally decided to buy the tickets: the Romanian Metronom and the Spanish-Portuguese O corpo aberto. Some other films that had caught my attention and checked if there was some screening time that suited me were: SERVIAM, I Will Serve and La Gravité

All in all an excellent edition, that somehow makes me proud of how an aging mid-size city far away from everything and in a long lapsus between decadence and resurrection manages to organize a first class cultural event like this. Ah, I must mention that I very much appreciate the use of Asturian language words for some sections (Esbilla) and subsections (Albar, Retueyos y Tierres en Trance). A touch of class, elegance and authenticity. Puxa!