Year: 2016
Country:
USA, SPAIN
Language:
English, Spanish, Galician
Run Time:
83 minutes
High in the northwest Spanish hills lies the nearly abandoned hamlet of Santoalla. Years ago, a ruddy Dutchman named Martin and his wife Margo threw off the shackles of their bourgeois existence, bought a camper van, and traveled through Europe looking for a place to live off the land in freedom. They seemed to have found it in Santoalla. But then things started going wrong. A fascinating documentary about strangers in paradise, SANTOALLA weaves powerful archival material through interviews. The only other inhabitants of the crumbling village are an elderly couple with two grown sons. Hardened folk who till the soil, they oppose their new neighbors’ plans to ready their property for agritourism. Indeed, the Galician and Dutch mentalities seem to clash. Martin, always an activist, films his adversaries, hoping to catch them engaging in ecological misdemeanors and illegal trespassing. During strife over common land, he sues them, and wins. Two months later, he completely disappears. Margo continues to labor alone, hoping for Martin’s return. This poignant film is both a true crime story and an elegy to a romantic dream. (In English, Spanish, and Galician with subtitles) —B.B.
Tuesday, April 04, 2017 at 4:30 PM
Wednesday, April 05, 2017 at 8:30 PM
Thursday, April 06, 2017 at 3:40 PM
Sidebar
CINEMA EN ESPAÑOL
Genre
Recommended for High School Students +
Competition
Nesnadny + Schwartz Portrait Documentary Competition
Director
Andrew Becker, Daniel Mehrer
Andrew Becker and Daniel Mehrer are director-cinematographers from Brooklyn, New York. Becker is also an editor and composer. After years of working in television production, they're making their film debut with SANTOALLA.
Filmography
SANTOALLA (2016)
Producers
Andrew Becker, Daniel Mehrer, Cristina De La Torre
Cinematography
Andrew Becker, Daniel Mehrer
Editing
Andrew Becker
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