Málaga Festival: ‘The Garden We Dreamed,’ ‘I Won’t Die For Love,’ ‘Iván and Hadoum’ Sweep Top Prizes 

Hailed by Variety as a standout at this year’s Panorama program at Berlin, Joaquín del Paso’s “The Garden We Dreamed” took best picture, direction, cinematography (Gökhan Tiryaki) at the Malaga Festival, which closes Saturday night with an Awards ceremony.

Further top plaudits went to Spain’s“I Won’t Die For Love,” a Golden Biznaga for best Spanish film, and “Ivan & Hadoum” and Chile’s “The Red Hangar.”

Focusing on films from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, and hosting the Spanish Screenings Content, Spain’s equivalent of France’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris.

Del Paso’s third feature, “The Garden We Dreamed” is a small-scale production that nonetheless has real cinematic heft — in large part thanks to striking widescreen lensing by Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s regular DP Gökhan Tiryaki — and urgent human stakes that steadily vault this intimate, delicately sensory film into heart-in-mouth survival thriller territory,” Variety said in its Berlin review. “That escalation ought to turn the heads of arthouse distributors, while a long trail of further festival invitations is a given.”

The full force of cinema is felt not only in an outstanding sound design, notable in the wondrous opening sequence which catches the cacophony of Mexico’s stunning Oyamel fir forest at dawn. Add the presence of myriad Monarch butterflies, “The Garden We Dreamed” is a film crafted and delivering on multiple, building as a family love tale.

The 29th edition of the Málaga Festival “confirmed the strength and vitality of Spanish-language cinema,” director Juan Antonio Vigar affirmed at the prize announcement in Málaga. 

That can also been seen in its prizes. Sold by M-Appeal, “The Garden We Dreamed”  is Del Paso’s third feature, after 2016’s “Pan-American Machinery” and 2021’s “The Hole in the Fence,” each a step-up in ambition. Otherwise, the other titles which made most of the running at Saturday’s awards are either first features – “I Won’t Die For Love,” “Iván & Hadoum” – or at least a first fiction feature: “The Red Hangar.”

The biggest prize breakout at Málaga, since a world premiere, “I Won’t Die for Love,” directed and written by Marta Matute, won not only best Spanish film but also actress (Julia Mascort), and supporting actor (Tomás del Estal). Inspired by Matute’s personal experience as a carer for her mother, an Alzheimer disease sufferer, during her early adulthood, the title was always a main competition frontrunner. “The film moved and convinced, because of its subtlety, capacity of observation and bitter-sweet tone,” said Spanish newspaper La Opinion de Murcia. Solita Films (“The Glass Bowl”) produces with Elastica (“Alcarràs”), which also handles distribution in Spain. 

Unspooling in an Southern Spain greenhouse, Ian de la Rosa’s “Ivan & Hadoum,” another Berlin Panorama title, scored the Festival’s Special Jury Prize, screenplay (De la Rosa) and a special mention for best actor (Silver Chicón). 

“A classic love story between characters who are anything but classic,” De la Rosa told Variety, the film plays out as an ingratiating, empathy inducing romance between trans man Iván and Moroccan-Spanish co-worker Hadoum. De la Rosa co-wrote “Veneno” and scored a Cannes Festival berth for his short, Avalón, behind “Alcarràs,” produces. Indie Sales reps international rights. 

A Berlinale Perspectives title, “The Red Hangar” won a crucial prize combination for future sales – Málaga Audience and Critics’ Jury Awards, plus best actor (Nicolás Zarate). The nods went to film shot in black and white and based on a book “Shoot the Flock” by investigative journalist Fernando Villagrán and the memories of Jorge Silva, Chile’s former head of Air Force Intelligence. He is reassigned as an instructor at its Air Force Academy, repurposed as a torture center in the hours after Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup.

“An austere, contained but impeccable narrative and a humanist take on highly complex human conduct with which characters attempt to solve their contradictions wih te greatest dignity possible,” said Málaga’s critics’ jury in its explanation of its award. 

Of main competition contenders, two prizes – best supporting actress and music (Cergio Prudencio y Marcelo Guerrero) – also went to “The Condor’s Daughter ” a Ventana Sur and Toronto Festival hit and a classic coming of age tale grounded in a striking, often sweeping reality of the high Andes. It is written, directed and produced by Empatia Cinema’s Álvaro Olmos Torrico, a key figure on Bolivia’s cinema scene.

More to come.