WOLFGANG | MARCO, THE INVENTED TRUTH | EL 47 | FESTIVAL DATES
WOLFGANG, Spain, 2025. Starring Miki Esparbe, Jordi Catalan, Angels Gonyalons, Anna Castillo, Berto Romero. Corrected by Javier Ruiz Caldera. 115 minutes.
Here is a drama well worth seeing. The setting is Barcelona. Ten-year-old Wolfgang goes to live with his father Carles following the death of his pianist mother. An actor, Carles has been absent from Wolfgang’s life so far. Familiar enough material – the boy wary of this new father present in his life when he never knew he had one and a reliance on his mother’s mother, a loving grandmother.
This theme of relationships and tensions has the potential for being interesting and emotional. And it is. However, the difference with this story is that Wolfgang is intelligent, IQ of 152, an ambitious genius, pianist, and, at 10, wanting to be the best in the world. But, there is more. Wolfgang is autistic.
The young actor, Catalan, holds our attention throughout the film. Being on the spectrum, he is focused, literal, highly talented, but, at this stage of his life, absolutely intolerant and disdainful of anyone and anything that does not measure up to his expectations. Which means that there is a lot of drama in the father-reluctant-son relationship.Because Wolfgang is highly self-sufficient and has an ambition to train as a pianist in an Institute in Paris, he is able to organise himself to the train to get there. But, in his disdain of those who are ‘below 100’, he underestimates that adults will see him as a minor in need of some kind of care.
The scene where he does his audition at the music school, his skill in playing, his memories of his mother, makes for high drama. So, while we focus on Wolfgang, finding him trying at times, the demand on our understanding and compassion for his condition, the film also is a good study of the absent father, discovering responsibilities, reflecting on his life and career, the challenge as to how much of himself he will keep to his son and sacrifice himself for his son.
There is just a quick wink at the end of the film which seems far too cute and this reviewer was momentarily taken aback. Not quite the final moment expected. But, during the credits, the filmmakers have the last laugh, presenting us with a comic scene which brings us back to the reality of what we have experienced in watching the character and development of Wolfgang and his father.
MARCO, THE INVENTED TRUTH, Spain, 2024. Starring Eduard Fernandez, Nathalie Poza. Directed by Aitor Arregi, Jon Garano. 104 minutes.
This is the story of the life and career of Spaniard, Enric Marco (1921-2022). While his story is well-known in Spain it is not so well-known beyond the country’s borders, and the film is a startling experience.
The focus of his story is on many of the Spanish veterans who opposed Franco during the Spanish Civil War were later deported to Germany, because of an agreement between Hitler and Franco (some actual footage inserted here in the film). Most of them found their way to the camps at Mauthausen and Flossenburg (where Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed). The information at the beginning of the film indicates that Spain and other countries were not willing to rehabilitate these deportees after the war. Eventually, an association to support the deportees on their return and their life in Spain was established. At the end of the 1990s, Marco, who stated that he had been imprisoned in Flossenburg, became the chair of the deportees’ organisation.
The film moves around in different times. There are some footage clips of prisoners in the concentration camps. There is a sequence where Marco and his wife go to Flossenburg to obtain an official document stating that he had been interned there. There are some technical difficulties with the record. Then there are sequences of him in his role with the organisation, his friends on the committee, giving talks to high school students, alerting them to the camps, the treatment, their questions, and has a vivid way of telling the stories.
So far, so interesting. On screen he is something of a mesmerising character as he was in real life. He is played by veteran Spanish actor Fernandez (also seen in the central role of El 47). Short, stocky, tinting his hair and eyebrows as he grew older, gazing at himself in the mirror, quite an intriguing character, not hesitant in the limelight, supported by his wife at home, a loving daughter who gives birth to his grandson.
Then, questions arise. A historian wants to make contact – there are some questions about the authenticity of his story . . . Marco is firmly resistant, avoiding meetings with the historian, more and more urgently defending himself, especially to his close associates on the committee for the rehabilitation of the deportees.
Enough of a review. The recommendation is if this story sounds interesting, it certainly is on screen. Marco lived to 101, the film showing his life after the crisis which occurred in 2005. An intriguing story of 20th century Spain.
EL 47, Spain, 2024. Starring Eduard Fernandez, Clara Segura, Zoe Bonafonte. Directed by Marcel Barrena. In 10 minutes.
An intriguing title, suggesting some kind of hero with that name and number. In fact, the film is about a Spanish hero but the title refers to the number of the bus that he drives in the latter part of the film.
The film is set in two different periods – 1958, but mainly in 1978 just after Franco (who ruled for 40 years) dies.
In 1958, citizens from southern Spain had to move from their villages. They transferred to the outskirts of Barcelona, villages in the high and steep hills. They are impoverished, do not speak Catalan, and try to build some kind of community, especially houses, but are continually thwarted by a rule that if they house roof is not finished by morning everything is torn down by the rather gloating police. The citizens are finally enterprising, led by a strong character, Manolo played with strength and conviction by Fernandez.
Manolo is not a religious man, highly critical of a nun who has devoted herself to education and working for the poor. But, the social convictions combine with his fight for justice and she leaves the convent to marry him, work with him and raise his two children. With a range of characters and the interactions in the village, this is strong drama taking us back to difficult times.
While things have improved considerably in the village after 20 years, some stability in homes, education, the population is still comparatively impoverished many, having to work in the centre of the city that has no public transport. They walk down to the city but the walk home, up a steep hill, is especially difficult. Manolo is still a dominant character, somewhat mellowed over the years, and his wife, still devoted to him and to her work, especially teaching the poor.
There is a great deal of drama among the various characters in the town, especially on social issues and the facilities or lack of, poverty and personality clashes. With the issue of the steep hillside significant, Manolo decides to approach the authorities, patiently going to hearing after hearing, making his case for a bus to go up to the village. He is continually fobbed off. The climax of the film: clearly Manolo is going to drive that bus up the hillside, some of the path narrow, slippery soil, but, the final achievement, surrounded by the villagers.
A film about Spain and social justice but also a strong drama. It is the kind of film that makes us feel we have visited this village and know the people.
FESTIVAL DATES
Canberra: 11 June – 2 July: Palace Electric Cinema
Adelaide: 11 June – 2 July: Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas
Brisbane: 11 June – 2 July: Palace James Street and Palace Barracks
Perth: 12 June – 2 July: Palace Raine Square Cinemas, Luna Leederville and Luna on SX
Melbourne: 13 June – 2 July: The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Palace Balwyn and Pentridge Cinema
Ballarat: 13 June – 2 July: Palace Regent Cinema
Sydney: 19 June – 9 July: Palace Norton Street, Palace Moore Park, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema
Byron Bay & Ballina: 19 June – 9 July: Palace Byron Bay, Ballina Fair Cinemas