EL CIELO GIRA (THE SKY TURNS )

Mercedes Alvarez was three years old when, in the late 1960s, she and her parents left Aldealseñor, a small rural town in the north of Spain. Today, she returns for the first time to the village in which she was the last person to be born. Only fourteen people live there now, a last dying generation, and like many other rural communities in Europe, the village is destined to disappear from the map soon.

In her debut film, Mercedes Alvarez captures the ordinary but also magical, melancholy and sometimes comical moments of simple country life in a dissolving place: an old castle is transformed into a five-star hotel; politicians make their way to the remote village trying to get a few votes; Olympic medallists run around the area; American bombers pass high in the sky on their way to Baghdad… We see Iberian Celtic remains as evidence of a thousand-year-old history. The ever-changing landscape is captured in magnificent cinematography, which recalls Victor Erice and the local painter, Pello Azketa, who was born in the village and is now slowly going blind. In his last painting he is trying to capture the sense of a place that is disappearing not only from his sight. The sky turns is a beautiful film-painting about the passing of time.

"Here's a movie about time, space and the gaze that connects everything: The sky turns is essential cinema." (Diego Lerer, © FIPRESCI 2005)

Awards: Grand Prix, Cinéma du Réel, Paris 2005; VPRO Tiger Award, Rotterdam 2005; New Vision Award, Infinity Festival, Torino 2005; Best Film, FIPRESCI Award and Audience Award, Buenos Aires 2005