Reflections on freedom and the extermination of natural resources have been the topics addressed on the penultimate day of the Official Section of Documentaries in competition that took place in the Sala de deporte y Turismo de Andalucía. These involved productions during the Malaga Film Festival that caught the attention of directors and screenwriters from Denmark, Uruguay and Paraguay, as well as Spain.

'The painter's room', a short film by Catalan director Maria Colomer Canyelles about the daily lives of the residents of a deportation centre in Denmark that previously served as a prison. There they meet Artin, a young Iranian bodybuilder, and Jahan, a Kurdish man who has recently discovered his passion for painting. In a hostile and desolate situation, Artin and Jahan investigate how to bring hope to their lives and the people around them.
 
'It is important to emphasise that we were not able to make this documentary in Spain. Here we are not allowed to record inside the CIE like in Denmark. We have to have discussions with the system we have here to try to make something change,' María Colomer claimed in the talk with the audience.
 
The expatriates' drama is also addressed in ‘La nieve entre los dos', a feature film screened after. Directed by Uruguayan filmmaker Pablo Martínez Pessi, the documentary portrays the complicated relationship of a family broken by the military dictatorship that ruled Uruguay in the 1970s. Repatriated to Sweden due to the dictatorial regime, three sisters try to rebuild their lives while longing for their beloved father, the political prisoner Juan José Noueched. Inés Noueched, one of her daughters, stars in the film where she remembers the hundreds of handwritten letters between her and her father.
 
‘We worked for years to get this love story out there. Therefore, you should all respect Inés a lot because her story is a treasure for her,' the director presented while inviting the protagonist to say a few words to the audience. 'Right now my legs are shaking... It's nice to see this film with an audience because I see it with your eyes. We must continue to show people that going to Sweden was not a perfect dream,' said Inés Noueched.
 
In the second screening of the afternoon, the public at the Tourism and Sports Hall attended an innovative cinematographic proposal. Signed by the Paraguayan director Maira Ayala, the documentary 'Hacer orillas luminosas' puts images recorded by thermal cameras together. With the aim of raising awareness of the dangerous and centuries-old activity carried out by working women known as passers, the documentary delves into the Argentine-Paraguayan border where many of these women risk their lives to cross the Paraná River in the middle of the night.
 
At the end of the day, the Documentary Section featured the screening of 'Los últimos', a recent work by Paraguayan director Sebastián Peña Escobar. Accompanying his uncle Jota and his friend, Ulf, a renowned moth specialist, Sebastián Peña undertakes a long journey to the Chaco, an ecosystem of dry forests in danger of extinction, considered the largest green mass in South America after the Amazon.
 
'This is a story affected by fire. The problem of fires is not something exclusive to Paraguay. Unfortunately, it is also something common in other countries,' mentioned the director, whose film attempts to serve as a wake-up call to the collective conscience - a cry of warning about harmful human behaviour in nature.