The always stylish and idiosyncratic Basque auteur Julio Medem (The Red Squirrel; Lovers of the Arctic Circle) is back with one of his most ambitious films (and our closing night gala), a curvy historical romance in eight chapters, spanning eight decades in Spanish history from the 1930s to the present day. Otto and Adele are born in neighbouring villages on the same spring day in 1931. His family is staunchly Republican; hers are with the Communists. Although they will only meet later in life, their destinies are forever intertwined…
Shot in delirious, meandering sequence shots, 8 sketches a portrait of Spain as a nation at war with itself, full of contradiction and conflict, but also passionately indivisible. Medem loves melodrama, and this sexy, ostentatious and provocative movie goes all out. Don’t fight it!
Julio Medem is such a special, daring and unique filmmaker that he has become a kind of cinematic genre in himself… [and he is] above all, a baroque visual poet.
Alfonso Rivera, Cineuropa
Julio Medem
Javier Rey, Ana Rujas, Álvaro Morte
Spain
2025
In Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Wednesday January 14
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Executive Producer
Pilar Benito
Producer
Rodrigo Espinel, Álvaro Longoria, Julio Medem
Screenwriter
Julio Medem
Cinematography
Rafael Reparaz
Original Music
Lucas Vidal
Production Design
Montse Sanz
Also in This Series
This year’s New Spanish Cinema is packed with an exceptionally strong line-up — award-winning cinema, an Opening Gala featuring tapas and wine, and a flamenco-inspired VIFF Live.
The Blue Star
In crisis, a popular singer quits Spain to backpack in Argentina. There he comes under the spell of a veteran musician, who teaches him the art of chacareras, zambas and vidalas. It's a journey of musical kinship and spiritual reawakening.
Forastera
In this mysterious and subtle coming of age drama, teenager Cata is soaking up the sun, smoking furtive cigarettes, and enjoying a summer break with her grandparents and her younger sis in Mallorca. That is, until Cata's beloved abuela collapses...
Afternoons of Solitude
Pacification director Albert Serra turns his unflinching gaze on the subject of bullfighting, and in particular the famous young matador Andrés Roca Rey. The film challenges us to look its subject square in the eye and draw our own conclusions.
The Executioner
Regularly cited as the greatest Spanish film ever made, Berlanga's masterpiece is a pitch black comedy about an undertaker lined up by the state executioner to marry his beautiful daughter -- but he'll also have to inherit the old man's job.
The Flamenco Guitar of Yerai Cortés + Por Derecho (On Their Own Right) Live
Winner of the Goya Award for Best Documentary, this is an exquisite and surprisingly intimate portrait of the brilliant young guitarist Yerai Cortés, preceded by an hour of passionate flamenco music, song and dance performed by Por Derecho.
Saturn Return
This fascinating, highly acclaimed movie is a thinly disguised history of 90s indie rockers Los Planetas, a Granada grunge outfit who cited the Velvet Underground as inspiration. It's one of the best rock movies in years.
8
The always stylish, idiosyncratic Basque auteur Julio Medem is back with one of his most ambitious films (and our closing night gala), a sweeping historical romance in eight chapters, spanning eight decades in Spanish history from the 1930s to the present day.