The section of the 29th Festival de Málaga dedicated defending the situation of women and contributing to raising social awareness of their rights, Affirming Women's Rights, kicked off Turismo Andaluz this Monday. This project was developed in collaboration with the Equal Opportunities Department of Malaga City Council.
 
On the first day, seven films were screened: Pajuyuk by Ruby Chahsi; La cara de la bicicleta by Amaia Nerekan Umaran and Itziar Zorita Agirre; La fuerza del silencio by Samuel Vela; Llamarse Olimpia by Indira Cato; Agatha y el amor by Elke Franke; Recuerdo tu nombre by Silvia Venegas; and Watch over us by Carlos García de Dios.
 
The cycle began with the screening of the short film Pajuyuk by the Ecuadorian filmmaker and artist Ruby Chasi. Her intercultural vision has been marked by her links with indigenous cultures and the Kichwa. In fact, in this filmography we can see how this theme takes centre stage with the rituals of the midwives of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The film is set in the Upper Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, where the Napuruna midwives celebrate Kicnana to renew their energy after giving birth. Through stories, it conveys how midwifery is passed down among generations. By drinking the water, the midwives regenerate their health and strengthen their Pajuyuk, their ancestral wisdom. This practice keeps them spiritually connected to the forest.

La cara de la bicicleta
The day continued with La cara de la bicicleta, the first joint creation by Amaia Nerekan and Itziar Zorita. This is a short film that aims to highlight women's capacity for struggle and resistance in the face of society's restrictions.

It takes place at the end of the 19th century, when women started riding bicycles and were diagnosed with a made-up illness to discourage them from riding bicycles. Film clips, archive footage, texts, fictional scenes and bicycle sounds make up this audiovisual collage that aims to be an ode to women's freedom and to their capacity for struggle and resistance.

The two creators combine their research and teaching work in the Department of Audiovisual Communication at the University of the Basque Country.

La fuerza del silencio
This documentary by Spanish-Bolivian filmmaker Samuel Vela tells the story of a young Ethiopian girl who suffers sexual violence, and her fighting spirit. Vela's work tends to maintain a sensitive and committed approach to social and humanitarian stories.

In La fuerza del silenci, we travel to the Tigray region of Ethiopia to follow the life of Letebirhan, a 17-year-old girl whose life was fractured by war. She is kidnapped, a survivor of sexual violence and abandoned with a child born of trauma. She faces rejection from her community and family. Her survival depends not only on the bread she bakes for a living, but also on an ancestral ritual: the coffee ceremony, whereby women like her turn silence into an act of resistance and sorority.
 
Llamarse Olimpia
Other feature films that were shown include Indira Cato's Llamarse Olympia. The founder of Chumbera productions debuted with this project as a director. Its subject matter follows the line of her company's gender perspective.

Llamarse Olimpia narrates the life of the protagonist Olimpia Coral Melo, who never sought to become a feminist icon. The humiliation of seeing her intimate video go viral made her want stop using her real name. For thirteen years, she fought for a law against digital sexual violence in Mexico. Now, as the Olimpia Law spreads rapidly throughout Latin America, she must come to terms with her wounds and re-appropriate the name that shame sought to take away from her.

Agatha y el amor
This intensive day of Affirming Women's Rights continued with the screening of the short film Agatha y el amor by Elke Franke, where for five years, the camera accompanies Agatha, a Mexican teenager living a period marked by doubts about identity, sexuality and love. It is an intimate and luminous tale of self-discovery, autonomy and love.
Franke often stands out for her distinctive style in developing projects that empower youth, women and children.

Watch over us
Another short film that was shown in advance is Watch Over Us, which tells the story of Victoria López, mother of three babies and sentenced to seven years for selling drugs. A state programme allowed Victoria to live at home until her newborn twins were one year old, at which point Victoria must be handed over to justice.

Carlos García de Dios's documentary films this painful countdown as Victoria, her mother, and her daughter reflect on their lives in a small rural town in Minnesota.

Recuerdo tu nombre
The section culminated with the feature film Recuerdo tu nombre by Silvia Venegas, member of the Spanish Film Academy, the European Film Academy and the Extremadura Film Academy.

This film is about archaeologist Laura Muñoz, who fights against time and oblivion to uncover the truth hidden in the mass graves of the Spanish Civil War. The investigation reveals how the female body has historically been a battlefield and how silence still weighs on that violence in the wars of the present.