8

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