There seems to be a trend in some contemporary Spanish filmmaking toward unusual genre storytelling these days. Time travel, cloning and apocalyptic fiction are themes in films coming from the nation of Spain this year.
This trend first hit the global stage in January of this year with the premiere of Nacho Vigalondo’s TIMECRIMES at the Sundance film festival. The film won strong praise and the remake rights have already been attached to the mast of genre mutation David Cronengberg.
The Spanish science fiction slant continued later in the year at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival with the premiere of Javier Gutierrez’s BEFORE THE FALL. This film further shatters genre mold by applying a disaster movie backdrop overtop a slasher film, which sounds like a disastrous idea but somehow it works really well. This is due in no small part to the dusty Spanish setting, which infuses everything in the film with golden grit.
And the trend continued in many other films which we have unfortunately not had space for in our festival, but hope to see them pop up in some of the other fantastic genre festivals around the world this year.
It’s unclear what perfect combination of inspiration and innovation has lead to this recent resurgence of Spanish Science Fiction, but we can all be thankful for it. Now all that is left to find a fun name for this funky fresh movement. Maybe Cyberia? Or Barcelonasploiation?
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