Pedro Almodovarwho landed yesterday in San Sebastián, was received with the happy birthday that the many people who awaited his arrival sang to him. As he confessed in the press conference this morning, in the last 24 hours he has experienced “a tumult of emotions” that this afternoon have been sublimated with the awarding of the second and last of the Donostia Awards of the 72nd edition of the Festival of cinema that hosts the Basque city.
© Iñaki LuisThe filmmaker from La Mancha received it from the hands of actress Tilda Swinton, co-star of The next roomthe film with which a few weeks ago won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In his speech, he made a clear defense of empathy against the hate speeches that prevail today.
© Iñaki Luis“Never before has hate been able to organize itself, anonymously, with impunity. My film represents the opposite (empathy, accompanying and helping) and I hope it moves you as much as those of us who made it,” said the director, who appeared in a packed Kursaal Auditorium accompanied by Swinton, Juan Diego Botto, Victoria Luengo, Raúl Arévalo and Melina Matthews, with the only absence of Julianne Moore.
© Jorge FuenbuenaThe director recalled his first contact with cinema when he was a child and also the years in which he moved from La Mancha to Madrid “without a penny” but with the firm intention of devoting himself to cinema, “a passion” that has given “ a direction” to his life and “probably” has “saved” him from many dangers: “Cinema has given me everything, much more than I could imagine.”
© Nora Jauregui“At my age, an award like the Donostia can indicate the end of a path and a reward for having traveled it. But I don’t experience it like that: for me, cinema is a blessing or a curse. My calling has been and continues to be stronger than me and everything around me. “I don’t imagine any other type of life than writing and directing without pause,” he said, convinced that the alternative to this would be “emptiness.” After dedicating the award to his brother Agustín, the production company El Deseo and countless collaborators with whom he has been working for almost half a century, he said that “life, both in fiction and in reality, is complex and involves a multitude of dangers, but without freedom life is not worth it.”
© Ibai Arrieta“I suppose it may sound cheeky, but abusing the power that this award gives me, I thought I would give you some advice. Let us do everything possible so that the great tragedies, the daily pain, the misunderstanding, the lies, the lack of empathy, the social injustice, the hatred, everything negative imaginable, let us make them belong to fiction and that real life passes in a way fair, at peace, and very entertained by the fictions that will only exist on our screens. I know I’m asking too much, but it’s always been like this, since I arrived in Madrid in 1970, intending to dedicate myself to directing films. Thank you very much for this award, and thank you for listening to me,” he concluded.
