The Documentaries Official Competition of the 29th Festival de Málaga has kicked off with the screening of four films. The short films El Perú es un lugar para morir (Peru is a place to die) and A donde nos lleva la fe de José Gerónimo (Where José Gerónimo's Faith Takes Us); and the feature films Un arbre és un arbre (A Tree is a Tree) and A voz de deus (The Voice of God) were screened this Friday 6th March at the MVA (Centro Cultural María Victoria Atencia).

The first day of the Official Competition began with the most recent work by Peruvian documentary filmmaker and editor Víctor Augusto Mendívil , El Perú es un lugar para morir. Based on footage filmed in Peru in 1950 by a foreigner, Victor writes a visual letter to his son Claudio to question the country he is inheriting. Between heartbeats and ruins, he searches for hope that endures in the midst of disappointment. Exploring memory, archives and the relationship between the intimate and the historical from an essayistic perspective, Víctor Mendívil reflects on "what kind of country we are going to leave to the next generations of Peruvians".

Likewise with the aim of encouraging reflection and meditation on how we construct our world through our gaze and the complex relationship between images and spoken language, photographer Aleix Plademunt and filmmaker Carlos Marqués-Marcet presented their feature film Un arbre és un arbre. The result of a creative process spanning more than ten years, during which they travelled to almost twenty countries and accumulated an extensive personal archive, Aleix Plademunt and Carlos Marques-Marcet brought a complex work to the Festival de Málaga in which they propose different ways of seeing the reality that surrounds us.

According to the director, Aleix Plademunt, who was present at the presentation of his documentary, "the initial seed of this project is the encounter between photography and the moving image. That's why we wanted to incorporate this double-image aspect into the film, as if it were an open photo book".

Very excited about taking part in the Festival de Málaga, director Carlos Marqués-Marcet, winner of the Malaga Talent award in 2020, confessed to the audience present at the MVA his special affection for Malaga: "We and the Festival de Málaga go back a long way. This is where I met Aleix (co-director of the documentary) twenty years ago. To meet him again here presenting our documentary is incredible".

Continuing on the first day of the Documentaries Official Competition, the MVA hosted the screening of the short film A donde nos lleva la fe de José Gerónimo, the debut work of the Dominican-German filmmaker Juliano Kunert.

In twelve minutes, which is the total length of the short film, Juliano Kunert revisits the paths of his ancestors in the Antillean region to explore the roots of popular faith. With an aesthetic treatment of black and white, Kunert focuses on the relationship between history, cultural identity and religious beliefs that define the ethereal fringe of the Antilles Islands.

Also addressing the theme of faith, A voz de Deus was the last documentary screened on this first day of the festival. Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Miguel Antunes Ramos, this feature film follows the daily lives of two young preachers who seek, through faith, a path to a better life. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a Brazil in transformation, where religion and politics intertwine, and where one cycle ends as another begins.

"Miguel's magic is his ability to get so close to his protagonists that he becomes invisible. He manages to touch the hearts of the protagonists. They know that Miguel is there filming them, but they show him their vulnerability. There is total trust", commented Serrana Torres, producer of the feature film, in the post-screening colloquium.