This morning, the Ibercaja Patio de la Infanta Foundation hosted the screening of these films, which feature Ana Turpin and Juanjo Artero, who collected their awards yesterday at the festival’s opening gala.
The day will continue in the afternoon with the documentary series ‘Ataúdes blancos’ (White Coffins) and ‘Bartolomé Bermejo. El despertar de un genio’ (Bartolomé Bermejo: The Awakening of a Genius).
A boy and his schoolmates experience the circumstances of 20th-century Spain, when radio, Roberto Alcázar comics, Thursday movies with Franco inaugurating reservoirs, and John Wayne chasing and killing Indians represented everyday life in Spanish society. This is the story told in ‘El florido pensil’ (The Flowering Tree), a film by Juan José Porto starring actors such as Fernando Guillén, El Gran Wyoming, María Isbert, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, and Ana Turpin.
El florido pensil kicked off a series of special screenings at the Ibercaja Patio de la Infanta Foundation this morning, which will continue until 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 26. It is just one of the historical audiovisual titles in which Turpin has played a role. Her work in film and television productions that have recounted past events has earned her the 2025 Saraqusta Award, which she received yesterday at the opening gala of the 5th edition of Saraqusta Film Festival, organized by the Zaragoza City Council and Cosmos Fan.
”This film is special to me because it was my first feature film. I was very young and was able to be part of a way of making films that no longer exists. These were films with casts that included all the actors who belong to the cinematic memory of this country, such as Chus Lampreave, Fernando Guillén, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, María Isbert, Jorge Sanz, Natalia Dicenta, etc. Being part of this great family of Spanish cinema was a dream come true for me. This film tells the story of the school life of a group of children during the Franco era, referring to the National Catholic education system, with the approval of the official Catholic hierarchy that was in power at the time. It is a classic of our cinema,” emphasizes the actress.
This morning, the Patio de la Infanta also enjoyed a screening of El río que nos lleva (The River That Carries Us), a film starring Juanjo Artero, who last night, along with Turpin, was awarded the 2025 Saraqusta Award. The film is directed by Antonio del Real, who was honored with the same award at last year’s festival, and tells the story of the last “log drive” on the Tagus River: the last shipment of logs from Peralejos de las Truchas to Aranjuez.
Artero recalls that “in addition to being part of the cast, alongside Antonio del Real, I also worked on the production side, and we spent years before and after with the project in our hands, trying to get it off the ground, which was a learning experience for me in terms of life and our profession: I went from reading a novel and falling in love with it to turning it into a script, making it into a film, and distributing it. It was a pleasure for me to work with Antonio and the great actors who were part of the cast, and of course it was an honor to meet José Luis Sampedro, author of the novel of the same name. A wonderful person.”
SCREENINGS AT 5:00 PM AND 9:00 PM
The special screenings, which allow for works outside of the competition to be shown, will continue at 5:00 p.m. in the Patio de la Infanta. At that time, it will be the turn of ‘Ataúdes blancos’ (White Coffins), a documentary series directed by Silvia Ladrero and produced by AMAIRU Producciones in collaboration with the Government of Aragon, Aragón TV, and the Association of Victims of Terrorism, which recalls the attack on the Casa Cuartel in Zaragoza perpetrated by ETA in 1987, in which eleven people died, including six minors.
The series provides an exhaustive analysis of the judicial investigation and the entire investigation process as recounted by its protagonists: victims, firefighters, security forces, lawyers, politicians, journalists, and even members of TEDAX and the CNI, who worked firsthand to solve these crimes.
At 9:00 p.m., the Cervantes cinema will host the screening of ‘Bartolomé Bermejo. El despertar de un genio’ (Bartolomé Bermejo: The Awakening of a Genius) , a film by José Manuel Herraiz. At the beginning of the 20th century, a Gothic panel came to light in Paris that aroused admiration among the public and specialists for its quality. The painting depicted Santa Engracia, a 4th-century Christian martyr from Zaragoza. Thus began the awakening of Bartolomé Bermejo, an artist who had remained in obscurity for 400 years.
This documentary is a flashback from the heart of international collecting in the early 20th century to the turbulent second half of the 15th century in the Crown of Aragon. There, Bartolomé Bermejo lived an itinerant life, between the prosperity and refinement of new artistic trends and the cruelty and harassment of the newly created Spanish Inquisition.
Saraqusta Film Festival is co-organized by the Zaragoza City Council and Cosmos Fan, with the support of the Government of Aragon as an institutional partner, the Ibercaja Foundation as the main partner, and Ibercaja, Carné Joven de Aragón, Aragón Alimentos, and Arafilmfest as collaborators.
SUNDAY 27 AGENDA
From tomorrow, Sunday, until Thursday, May 1, the day before the festival closes (Friday, May 2, 7:00 p.m., Fundación Ibercaja Patio de la Infanta), there will be round tables on culture, audiovisual media, and the study of history; screenings of Aragonese documentaries, and screenings of the feature films and documentaries in competition, as well as the non-competitive showcase, Panorama Saraqusta, consisting of episodes from series and other audiovisual works.
Tomorrow, at 10:00 a.m., at the Caesaraugusta Theater Museum, the first press conference of the festival week will take place, during which details of the day’s program will be announced. It will be attended by Manuel Cabo Sánchez, director and producer of the documentary in competition ‘Mil leyendas, un grial’ (A Thousand Legends, One Grail); Guillermo Rojas, director of the feature film in competition ‘Solos en la noche’ (Alone in the Night) and the film’s actress Beatriz Arjona; and Marta Horno, director of the Aragonese documentary ‘Los fugaces párpados’ (The Fleeting Eyelids), who will be accompanied by the painter Jorge Gay, who is the subject of the audiovisual work.
Los fugaces párpados (The Fleeting Eyelids) will open at 12:00 p.m. at the museum, kicking off this edition’s section dedicated to Aragonese documentaries. The audiovisual takes a look at the life of artist Jorge Gay, from his different creative stages to the influences of all kinds that have inspired the Zaragoza-born painter. Immediately afterwards, at 12:30 p.m., the round table discussion ‘Wikipedia, cinema and history’ will be open to the public, analyzing this tool as a source of documentation for cinematographic events and audiovisual works.
The screenings will continue in the afternoon at Fundación Ibercaja Patio de la Infanta: in the Panorama Saraqusta section, at 5:00 p.m., you can see ‘El gigante de Es Vedrá y otras leyendas’ (The Giant of Es Vedrá and Other Legends), a film directed by Héctor Escandell, and at 7:00 p.m., the documentary in competition ‘Mil leyendas, un grial’ (A Thousand Legends, One Grail), directed by Manuel Cabo Sánchez, which delves into the legends linked to the Holy Grail and the reality behind them. At 9:00 p.m., at the Cervantes cinema, it will be the turn of the feature film in competition ‘Solos en la noche’ (Alone in the Night), a Spanish production directed by Guillermo Rojas that tells the story of how a group of politically significant labor lawyers hide in a house when the coup d’état of February 23, 1981, takes place in Spain.
Tickets for all screenings and the closing gala are on sale through the festival’s official website, saraqustafilmfestival.com.