RETROSPECTIVE ISABEL HERGUERA
63 min
Cinema: SUN 10.3., 16:00 + Q&A / METRO Kino, Historischer Saal
This year’s retrospective is dedicated to Isabel Herguera, a pioneer of Spanish animation. From haunted borderlands to the insides of a lighthouse, Herguera takes us on a journey back in time to her beginnings with animation, but also to different geographical and metaphysical places. She interweaves personal anecdotes and notebook entries with poignant social and political commentary, pushing the boundaries of traditional animation and breaking with narrative conventions to crack open spaces for imagination.
Screening in the presence of the filmmaker.
SPAIN LOVES YOU
Isabel Herguera, 1988, ES, 6 minutes
This family story contains a private rereading of ten years in the history of Spain, from the birth of the author’s two brothers to the death of the Spanish dictator Franco in 1975.
LOS MUERTITOS
Isabel Herguera, 1994, ES and US-alt-short, 11 minutes
A fortune teller convinces the deceased in a cemetery in the Mexican border city of Tijuana to cross the border to the U.S. so they can enjoy the pleasures of the longed-for North. The deceased embark on a journey from which they will never return.
LA GALLINA CIEGA | BLINDMAN'S BLUFF
Isabel Herguera, 2005, ES, 7 minutes
A blind man accidentally loses his guide-dog. Alone in the dark in a big city, he discovers that his strength lies in recognising his own vulnerability.
ÁMÁR
Isabel Herguera, 2010, ES, 8 minutes
Inés travels to India to visit her friend Ámár, who has been living in a mental institution for years. Inés remembers the last days they spent together and her promise to return.
BAJO LA ALMOHADA | UNDER THE PILLOW
Isabel Herguera, 2012, ES, 9 minutes
An animated documentary made from the drawings and voices of a group of children living in a clinic in India. The guitar, dances, a trip to the sea, the cats Sweety and Kitty and the sisters who take care of them, are just some of the treasures and dreams that the children keep hidden under their pillows.
AMORE D’INVERNO | WINTER LOVE
Isabel Herguera, 2015, ES and IT, 8 minutes
While a couple strolls along the river, hunters observe a fawn in the forest and some friends remember the dancer from Clavesana, a metaphor for free love that fades into the landscape.
KUTXA BELTZA | BLACK BOX
Isabel Herguera, Izibene Oñederra, 2016, ES, 7 minutes
A moving truck heads towards the Igueldo Lighthouse, where a woman lives with a dog. Inside the charged environment of the lighthouse’s interior, the woman becomes the protagonist of the strangest of hallucinations.
LA MUJER ILUSTRADA | ILLUSTRATED WOMAN
Isabel Herguera, 2023, ES, 8 minutes
In Ahmedabad, Isabel gives an animation workshop on Mehndi design to a group of henna tattoo artists. She asks them about their dreams: Ramia would love to fly, Saadiya dreams of an all-woman parliament, Shubhashree longs to travel to Switzerland, and Samira voices her independence through rap.