And here we go! The Athens International Film Festival has started and the first film that I'm going to present to you is 10,000 Km from Spain, the film that won the Golden Biznaga for Best Film in the Malaga Spanish Film Festival.
Directed by Carlos Marques-Marcet the editor of It Felt Like Love (2013) and director of a few short films, 10,000 Km tells the story of a couple who after 7 years in a relationship, have to experience the loneliness and the special needs of the long-distance as Alex (Natalia Tena) has to move to Los Angeles for her studies and Sergi (David Verdaguer) has to remain in Barcelona and work.
Directed by Carlos Marques-Marcet the editor of It Felt Like Love (2013) and director of a few short films, 10,000 Km tells the story of a couple who after 7 years in a relationship, have to experience the loneliness and the special needs of the long-distance as Alex (Natalia Tena) has to move to Los Angeles for her studies and Sergi (David Verdaguer) has to remain in Barcelona and work.
It all starts with an impressive 23-minute one-shot showing some intimate yet every-day moments of a couple living in a small apartment. What is more impressive than the actual length of the scene, is the flow and the natural feeling that it gives to the audience, that -if not informed- may not notice that there is no editing. Soon after that, the film is a collection of scenes showing the separate lives of the couple who now live 10,000 Km afar from each other. The rest of the film consists of skype calls, -a lot of skype calls-, small scenes in one of the apartments and a few outdoor home-video-like shots.
The film is part of the ten films that participate in the International Competition of the AIFF and for that reason we were given the opportunity to vote "yes" or "no" at the end of the projection. But the truth is that because of its open-ending (no spoilers here, don't worry) and the way that the material was treated (I felt that for the sake of movie-making the film went on every way possible to try and keep the audience's attention without actually saying anything new) I wasn't able to vote at that moment.
What I take with me from this film is the great performances by both Tena and Verdaguer who manage to naturally convey their feelings to the audience and also the critique that the movie is trying to make towards the technology and the role that it plays to our society. Without the internet -and the surprisingly constantly flawless internet connection these two have- their relationship might have not taken the turn that it did or Alex might not have considered even the possibility of moving 10,000 Km away. For what it is as a film, though, all I can say is that it left me wanting more.
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