Clara Roquet’s feature debut ‘Libertad’ to open the 66th edition of SEMINCI

• The director returns with her first feature film to the Official Section of the festival, where in 2015 she won the Golden Spike and the EFA Award for Best Short Film with ‘The Goodbye’, her first job behind the camera.

‘Libertad’, the first feature film by the Catalan scriptwriter and director Clara Roquet (Vic, 1988), will open the 66th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival, which will take place from October 23 to 30. The film, which will be screening in competition in the Official Section of Seminci, recently had its world premiere at the Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival -this being the only Spanish feature film in the French competition-, where it was warmly received by both audience and critics.

Produced by Lastor Media and Avalon P.C. in partnership with Bulletproof Cupid (Belgium) and with the support of MEDIA, ICAA, ICEC, Eurimages, TVE, TV3, Movistar + and Catalan Films, ‘Libertad’ stars María Morera (Life without Sara Amat) and debutant performer Nicolle García in the respective roles of Nora and Libertad. The cast includes prestigious actresses like Nora Navas (Black Bread, Pain and Glory) and Vicky Peña (Stones, Secrets of the Heart) as well as fellow performers Maria Rodríguez Soto, Carol Hurtado, David Selvas, Óscar Muñóz, Sergi Torrecilla and Mathilde Legrand .

With ‘Libertad’, Clara Roquet returns to the Official Section of Seminci, the first film festival to reward her career as a director for her short film debut, ‘The Goodbye’ (2015), which won the Golden Spike and the EFA Award, a prize that also earned her a nomination for the European Film Awards. ‘The Goodbye’ premiered at the Toronto International Festival and later won the Gaudí Award for Best Short Film in 2016. Roquet’s second short, ‘Les bones nenes’ (2017), received the “Movistar + short project” award and obtained the Special Mention for Best Ibero-American Short Film at the Guadalajara International Festival (Mexico), among others.

‘Libertad’, her first long feature

‘Libertad’ is Clara Roquet’s feature-length debut. She began her career as a screenwriter with ‘S.L. Familia ‘, for which she won the Special Jury Prize at the 8th edition of the Julio Alejandro Screenplay SGAE Awards. Her second script for a feature film was ‘10,000 Km ‘(2014), written in collaboration with director Carlos Marqués-Marcet and winner of a Goya Award for Best New Director. The film was also one of the three finalists to represent Spain in that year’s Oscar race.

The story of ‘Libertad’ takes place during a summer on the Costa Brava where, after a long time without seeing one another, the Vidal family spends the last vacation in the family home with their grandmother Angela, who suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. For the first time in her life, Nora (14) feels that she cannot find her place: she finds children’s games ridiculous and adult conversations are still too big for her. But everything changes with the arrival of Libertad (15), the daughter of Rosana, the Colombian woman who takes care of her grandmother. Rebellious and magnetic, Libertad becomes the gateway to a different summer for Nora and the two girls quickly forge an intense and uneven friendship as together they come out of the bubble of protection and comfort provided by the family home and discover a new world in which Nora feels freer than ever.

The film will open the 66th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival on October 23 and, once the ‘Film Week’ after which it will be theatrically released in on November 19 by Avalon D.A, in co-distribution with Elastica Films.