Sixth day at the Sitges Film Festival and we saw The Kingdom by Julien Colonna, Night Silence by Bartosz M. Kowalski, Escape by Jong-pil Lee and Animale by Emma Benestan

On the sixth day of the Sitges Festival, four films were being screened, two from the Orbita section and two others from the Official Section. Orbit are the films that do not enter the competition as they do not directly refer to the main concepts of the Festival, but can also be entered by theme or subgenre.

The first film of the day was at the Prado and was part of the Orbita section, The Kingdom by Julien Colonna, his debut film after directing a couple of series episodes. Colonna transports us to a summer in Corsica in the 90s through the eyes of the daughter of the leader of a mafia clan. many people he defined it as the fusion between After the sun Yes The Godfathertwo opposite films, but watching the film I understood why. Nor should we expect a perfect fusion, but it is true that in terms of themes, roles of the daughter and father and locations, the film has something of both works.

The director also runs the risk of centering the film from the daughter’s point of view, something that has rarely been seen with such precision in films about the mafia. And he also stands out for how he understands what he feels throughout the work and how Colonna conveys it. For my part, I might add a third thematic reference, violence and its use The last of usthat is, the vengeful power of violence and the legacy he ends up leaving behind.

The Kingdom It may be slow, but at this pace you can empathize with many characters and understand the mafia as a united family. fighting for everyone’s survival. Colonna has made a more than successful debut and one of the most compelling films of this Sitges Festival.

The second film of the day is in Official Competition and it was also the first time I entered the Auditori after several days spent at the Prado and Tramuntana. The movie was Night silence by Bartosz M. Kowalski, a horror film about a retired actor admitted to a nursing homein which a series of murders and strange treatments with patients begin to occur. The premise is powerful, but ends up being very frustrating by introducing several concepts that just make the plot dizzying by introducing concepts and things that don’t fit.

Night silence ends up pulling more Pan’s Labyrinth and causes the protagonist to encounter strange creatures living in the background of the residencebut at the same time he also wants us to believe that they are his dreams and even that they are caused by the pills that the workers give him. Kowalski tries to convey the elderly’s fear of loneliness and distance from loved onesBut no idea, fits perfectly and ends up extending the running time in scenes that do not contribute to a film that lasts an hour and a half, but which is also not saved by good cinematography and good creature designs.

After not having set foot in the Auditori these days, it was time to go back and see Leakbut that of Jong-pil Lee, not that of Rodrigo Cortes. Leak It’s also in the Orbit section since it’s a thriller about a North Korean soldier’s escape and desertion to the South. Jong-pil Lee ends up giving us a film full of adrenaline with many twists and surprises throughout his film, since when everything seems to be going well for the protagonist, a small turning point occurs that leads him to look for solutions and new paths to be able to escape.

Furthermore, this exciting journey is not only full of action and adrenaline, as it also features moments of comedy. playing with the roles of the characters, but neither the comedy nor the action take away from the fact that when the film needs to be emotional it achieves it in its final stretch and all thanks to the cat and mouse game between our protagonist and his old friend who he will chase him until he tries to capture him.

Finally, we triple the Auditori with a film from the Official Section, animated by Emma Benestan. The film focuses on Nejma, a girl from a small town dedicated to bullfighting, a world in which she is surrounded by men.but it helped him create a strong personality. The conflict will come when during the training murders begin to occur in the city and a strange creature seems to haunt them.

Emma Benestan gives us a visually very powerful film, with almost Western tones in some of its shots which fit the film and its theme very well.but we meet again a visually good film that ends up failing in its script. Without spoiling too much, the protagonist will continuously have very strange nightmares about a night in which she is drunk and at the same time will develop strange wounds that resemble those of a bull.

The problem with the script is that nothing happens during development and tries to divert the viewer’s attention by ignoring the night of partying to recover it at the end and give meaning to the entire film, when in reality we all know what happened that day, but the director tries to make us think it was something else. Ultimately it ends up falling into a lot of arguments like that and ends up frustrating a film with a great visual impact which perfectly conveys the strength of the protagonist and that of the animals.