A STUNNING restoration of a landmark documentary featuring six trans women in post-Franco Spain is to be shown in Scotland for the first time.
In an ironic twist, Dressed In Blue will be screened at the French Institute in Edinburgh where campaign group For Women Scotland celebrated the UK Supreme Court’s ruling that “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.
Supporters and group members gathered at the venue to watch a live feed of the ruling. They held a champagne celebration after winning their legal challenge against the Scottish Government’s view that a person with a gender recognition certificate could be considered a woman under the Act.
In contrast, Dressed In Blue tracks the empowerment of a group of Spanish trans women despite their marginalisation.
Made in 1983, it was shown at a few film festivals then forgotten about until a recent Spanish TV series about trans women revived interest in it.
The restored film was screened at the Berlin Film Festival this year and is now one of the highlights of the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival (ESFF).
The 12th edition of ESFF is celebrating both the 50th anniversary of the restoration of democracy in Spain and a return to Edinburgh Filmhouse for some of its screenings.
Assistant programmer, Dr Gustavo Herrera Taboada, said it was an “emotional moment” to return to the Filmhouse as it had closed just a few days before the 2022 ESFF was due to take place.
“It’s very significant for us to go back to the Filmhouse this year,” he said. “It is a democratic institution as we get to see films from around the world, and we hope people are willing to join us to watch all these stories.”
The theme is democracy to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco. Dr Taboada said it was an appropriate theme given the recent rise of the far right across the world.
“Not all the films relate to Franco’s regime directly, but one called The Good Manners takes place in Valencia during the early years and you can see how women were mistreated and not given opportunities to work and become independent,” he said.
The opening event will be a reflection on the legacy of the Spanish transition and what can be learned from it, particularly in today’s critical context for democracy everywhere.
Following this, the opening film will be Breaking Walls (below), a road movie set in 1989 featuring a group of reluctant fathers who must escort their young daughters from Spain to Germany for a gymnastics competition at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Director Borja Cobeaga will present the film on October 3 at the Edinburgh Filmhouse, followed by a Q&A session.
“In a way, the film sums up the end of an era and the hope that was supposed to follow,” said Dr Taboada.
Another highlight is Pheasant Island, a film dealing specifically with the refugee crisis and set in a border town between Spain and France, where African refugees drown in a river as they try to cross to France.
The uphill struggle of internal migrants in Barcelona can be seen in The 47 by Marcel Barrena and Away by Gerard Oms features Mario Casas’s breakthrough performance as an undocumented immigrant who strives to find a future in Amsterdam.
In addition there are two recent films from Peru: Queens, where two sisters have to choose between staying with their father and friends in Lima or migrating with their mother to the US and Through Rocks And Clouds, where an Andean shepherd boy excited about the FIFA World Cup is threatened by the social and environmental impact of corporate mining.
Last but not least, Professor Nuria Capdevilla’s celebrated audio-visual project CartasVivas will return to the festival, featuring new stories from overlooked Spanish female intellectuals.
All films will be screened in their original language with English subtitles. For hard-of-hearing (HOH) audiences, organisers are continuing to work with local accessibility experts such as Screen Language for HOH captioning.
Undercover, Breaking Walls and Dismantling An Elephant will be screened with HOH captions in Edinburgh, Inverness and Tranent.
There is also a new collaboration, Recording Edinburgh as My Home, with Scottish charity The Welcoming, which supports asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Edinburgh. Videos produced by refugees will be edited into a film to be shown at the festival.
Festival director Marian A Aréchaga, said: “Spanish cinema is on a high, with the number of films produced in Spain rising steadily in the past few years.
“At ESFF we are delighted to bring the best of those titles alongside some of the most exciting features from Latin America.”
For more information, visit the official festival website here.
