“Frente al silencio”, a Spanish film that portrays the impact that a book of poems about the horror of the Holocaust has on a flamenco dancer, was awarded as best documentary feature film at the New York City International Film Festival (NYCIFF , its acronym in English).
The work, which is “between documentary and fiction”, is a tribute by the filmmaker Emilio Ruiz Barrachina to the poet Félix Grande, who wrote his last book, “La cabellera de la Shoá”, after a trip to Auschwitz with which he broke up. 30 years of literary silence, and who died of cancer shortly after, in 2014.
The film director pointed out that the poet, whom he compares almost to a “father”, was one of the main historians of flamenco in Spain in recent years, for which reason he considered it “very appropriate” to remember him in a work that revolves around to this art.
The protagonist of «Frente al silencio» is the bailaora Fuensanta «La Moneta», a previous collaborator of Ruiz Barrachina, and who was «impressed» with Grande’s poetry on the Holocaust to the point of being inspired by it to do a flamenco show, which becomes the “backbone” of the film.
La Moneta gives dance classes in a civic center in Granada to a group of young people who face problems of discrimination due to their race, sexual orientation or gender; It is these realities and the “intransigence” that they suffer that will appear in their conversations, which do not follow a script.
One of the students, Israeli and Jewish, gives Grande’s book to the bailaora, who ends up visiting Auschwitz with her representative, played by actor Miguelo García, and seeing the two tons of hair that remains from the women who were exterminated there, including gypsies, some hair that moved the poet.
García, one of the few professional interpreters of the film and who was also awarded this Thursday as best actor at the NYCIFF, described working with “real” characters from communities usually “marginalized” by society as a “beautiful experience”. is the gypsy, and described as “strong” the private visit to Auschwitz as part of the filming.
Ruiz Barrachina, who has already collected thirteen awards for “Facing Silence” at different festivals since August and has more appointments on the agenda, applauded the good reception of the film, which brings “a Spanish reality” closer to other countries and connects with its audiences «through flamenco». EFE
