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On the fifth day of the festival, we find ourselves right in the middle of the event. Endless lines, fast food, overcrowded halls, dashes between the town and the Melià Auditorium, accumulated fatigue, and applause every time King Kong appears knocking down planes on the beach in Sitges. All this and much more is the Sitges Film Festival. Everyone navigating through the festival, fans, journalists, critics, filmmakers, and staff, enter a sort of dreamlike state as the festival progresses and the sessions accumulate. Everyone wants more movies, stronger sensations, and new surprises.
Monday dawned rainy with plenty of movies to enjoy. The day began with "A Dragon Arrives!" (Mani Haghinghi, Iran, 2016), a fantastic drama that combines fiction with documentary filmed in a suggestive desert. An enchanted cemetery, earthquakes, and a mysterious dragon in a flawlessly crafted film. Next, we watched "Pet" (Spain/USA, 2016) directed by the Catalan Carles Torrens, who has had a successful career despite his youth. It is a sordid, suffocating thriller with a highly original, bizarre, charming, and fun love story. "Mon ange" (Harry Cleven, France/Belgium 2016) has become another movie everyone is talking about during the festival. Filmed with great sensitivity and taste, it tells the love story between an invisible boy and a blind girl. To finish off Monday, we watched the science fiction film "Ares" (Jean-Patrick Benes, France, 2016), a futuristic drama with lots of action and suspense, with echoes of films like "The Running Man" (1987) and "Total Recall" (1990), excellently filmed.
The rain respected Tuesday's session, allowing us to enjoy the sun and the sea during the walks between rooms. It was a very special day with several tributes to important figures in the film industry, especially beloved by fantasy fans. It was also a day of good cinema produced in Spain, with young directors knocking on the industry's door in search of more opportunities. The day began with "The Glass Coffin" (Haritz Zubillaga, Spain, 1975), a violent and macabre story in which a respected actress receives an unexpected tribute. It is a small film, shot practically in a single space (a limousine) but gradually gains strength and power as perversity takes center stage. Next, we watched "Salvation" (Spain, 2016), directed by the Catalan Denise Castro, a small and intimate film that skillfully and sensitively narrates a love story between a girl with a heart condition and a boy who claims to be a vampire.
Later, we attended the premiere of "Heirs of the Beast" (Diego López and David Pizarro, Spain, 2016) which revolves around the gestation and filming of one of the Spanish fantastic masterpieces, "The Day of the Beast" (2016). Through interviews with both Álex de la Iglesia and part of the crew, we discover its intricacies and the influence it has had on all subsequent fantastic cinema made in Spain. The film featured the presence of the great actress Terele Pávez, honored during the festival.
The night ended excitingly with a tribute to two essential directors in fantasy cinema. Paul Schrader, screenwriter of "Taxi Driver" (1974) and "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) and director of "Mishima" (1985) and "Cat People" (1982), received The Time Machine in recognition of his entire career. On the other hand, the Italian director Ruggero Deodato, responsible for horror classics like "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980) and "House on the Edge of the Park" (1980), received The Honorary Mary, for his dedication and contribution to the fantasy genre.