2024 - 69th Edition

Close to the Sultan

Dans la chambre du sultan
En la alcoba del sultán
Javier Rebollo
Spain, France
 - 2024
From its earliest days, cinema has fascinated all those who have approached its magical way of capturing the world. Javier Rebollo, winner of the Best Director Award at the San Sebastian Festival for Woman Without Piano (2010) and the Critics' Prize for The Dead Man and Being Happy (2012), brings a film starring Pilar López de Ayala that looks back to the dawn of the 20th century and the mythological origins of cinema. Gabriel Veyre, inventor and camera operator for the Lumière brothers, accepts the captivating proposal of the Venerable Sultan and disembarks in the exotic Country of Nour to bring the mysteries of the cinematograph to the Orient. The exquisite cinematography by Santiago Racaj, a distinguished collaborator of Jonás Trueba and Carla Simón, immerses us in the audacious exploration of the mechanisms of the camera, in a phantasmagoric tale in a land of legend, almost a reverie about the pioneers of cinema and the first adventures that accompanied the seventh art, back when it moved between science and illusion.
Javier Rebollo

Filmmaker and cultural activist born in Madrid in 1969. He teaches filmmaking, documentary cinema and contemporary art at various schools and universities. He has directed the feature films ‘The Dead Man and Being Happy’ (2013), ‘Woman Without Piano’ (2009) and ‘What I Know About Lola’ (2006), which earned him the Fipresci award from international critics on two occasions (San Sebastian and London) and the Ibero-American critics’ award once (Montevideo), as well as the Silver Shell for best director at the San Sebastian Film Festival, among other awards. He previously directed ‘En medio de ninguna parte’ (1997), ‘Hello, Stranger!’ (1998), ‘El equipaje abierto’ (1999), ‘El preciso orden de las cosas’ (2001) and ‘En camas separadas’ (2002), a series of short films starring Lola Dueñas that premiered in the Official Section of Seminci and for which he was nominated twice for the Goya for Best Short Film.

Screenings

O.V. in Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Spanish subtitled in English and Spanish
Wed. 23, 9:00
Wed. 23, 19:15
Presentation
Q&A
Thu. 24, 22:00
Presentation
Q&A
DIRECTOR
Javier Rebollo
SCREENPLAY
Javier Rebollo, Luis Bértolo
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Santiago Racaj
EDITOR
Marine de Contes
SOUND
Patrick Ghislain
PRODUCTION
Nathalie Trafford, Roberto Butragueño, Lluís Miñarro, Jérôme Vidal
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Sideral Films, Eddie Saeta, Paraiso Production, Noodles Production
CAST
Félix Moati, Pilar López de Ayala, Iliès Kadri, Farouk Saidi, Jan Budař
RUNNING TIME
97 min.
TYPE
Largometraje
FORMAT
Color
YEAR OF PRODUCTION
2024
COUNTRY
Spain, France
CONTACT

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