International premiere

Baby

Local title
Lapsuke
Original title
Baby
Director
Juanma Bajo Ulloa
Country
Spain
Year
2020
Programme
Official Selection - Competition

A young drug addict who has lost touch with her rich family hits rock bottom when she sells her new-born baby to child traffickers. She soon regrets her decision and finds the courage and strength to get him back. To do so, she must follow a trail into the woods and find an eerie house where the old lady she met, her albino servant, and a girl with a strange gait, all live together. Nothing could have prepared her for the horror she is about to discover.

Bajo Ulloa, one of the most personal and controversial authors in the Spanish film landscape (able to win San Sebastian’s Golden Shell with his first feature and just few years later to bill the biggest box office ever in the country), comes back with a modern fairy tale, diving into the darkest side of the human soul with a master use of cinematic tools. Without dialogues, he underlines all those elements which sometimes we forget, with great use of art direction, a spectacular Virtuoso sound design, an evocative power of natural landscape. With an international cast of actresses at her best (the antihero and three witches), an exemplary use of framing and caring of little details (as the presence of connecting it with traditional tales, just one of the many metaphors of the film), the director builds up a catching narrative with only few plot elements, a whole symbolism about maternity.

A grueling trip, a sensorial experience, a film that captures you with horror film codes to bring you to an initiation journey by the hand of its visual poetry.

Javier Garcia Puerto

Director
Juanma Bajo Ulloa
Screenwriter
Juanma Bajo Ulloa
Cast
Rosie Day, Harriet Sansom Harris, Natalia Tena, Mafalda Carbonell, Charo López
Producer
Juanma Bajo Ulloa
DoP
Josep M. Civit
Editor
Demetrio Elorz
Music
Bingen Mendizábal, Koldo Uriarte
Production
Frágil Zinema, La Charito
Runtime
Director
Juanma Bajo Ulloa

Juanma Bajo Ulloa (snd 1967) on teenekas Hispaania filmilavastaja, kes alustas filmide tegemisega juba 14aastaselt. Tema esimene täispikk mängufilm „Butterfly Wings“ (1991), mis tõi talle noorima lavastaja tiitli, kes kunagi San Sebastiani filmifestivali võitnud, ja film „The Dead Mother“ (1993) tegid temast ühe olulisema Hispaania filmitegija. Film „Airbag“ (1997) läks ajalukku tänu sellele, et sellest sai viimase kümnendi suurim kodumaine kassahitt. „Lapsuke“ on režissööri kuues täispikk mängufilm.

Alas de mariposa (Butterfly Wings, 1991), La madre muerta (1993), Airbag (1997), Frágil (2004), Historia de un grupo de rock (doc, 2008), Rey Gitano (2015), RockNRollers (doc, 2016), Baby (2020)

Grand Prix for The Best Film, grant of 20 000 euros from the city of Tallinn

Trailer
Q&A with the filmmaker