The Festival de Málaga held a new session of Underground Andaluz, the cycle curated by the filmmaker Alberto Rodríguez that brings to light films made outside the mainstream industry which have, over time, become benchmarks of Andalusian alternative cinema.
 
In the first screening, the audience enjoyed the film El factor Pilgrim (The Pilgrim Factor), directed by Santi Amodeo and Alberto Rodríguez, an unclassifiable comedy about a Spaniard living in London whose life changes when he is offered a large sum of money for an apparently trivial object acquired at a flea market. The film has become established as one of the most singular titles in Andalusian audiovisuals at the beginning of the 21st century.
 
In the colloquium that followed, moderated by the scriptwriter Paco Campano took part the directors of the film, Alberto Rodríguez and Santi Amodeo; the producer Manuela Ocónthe assistant director Sergio Toledo, and the actors Álex O'Dougherty, Enrico Vecchi and Jöns Pappila.
 
Alberto Rodríguez explained that the initial idea arose from a mixture of personal experiences and cultural references, including the music of the Beatles, giving shape to an "unpretentious" work. He also pointed out that the project was built in a very DIY manner: "We started shooting it in 1998 with our own resources, after which we completed the film little by little".
 
Santi Amodeo emphasised the collective spirit of the filming, much of which took place in London, using the house where the crew lived as a set. Sergio Toledo underlined the experimental nature of the project: "The film was made rather aimlessly. We put a lot of faith in in Álex Catalán and in seeing where he would take us".
 
The second screening screened Invasión Travesti (Transvestite Invasion) by Paco Cabezas and Jerónimo de los Santosa production marked by humour and B-series aesthetics that presents a dystopian scenario in which hordes of transvestites have invaded the planet.
 
Alberto Rodríguez, Paco Cabezas and Jerónimo de los Santos took part in the subsequent colloquium. De los Santos explained that the film was born out of irony and as a response to his own experiences of repression in his youth: "We are not claiming that there is a gay dictatorship, but rather criticising the notion that everything is black and white". The director also recalled that the film was shot on 16 mm with very limited means, and that for years there was only one copy kept in the Filmoteca de Andalucía until the Festival de Málaga promoted its restoration.
 
For his part, Paco Cabezas emphasised the influence that Jerónimo de los Santos had in its beginnings, and defined the film as "a beautiful fable about a world that no longer exists". The actors also recalled the collective and transgressive nature of that experience, which, as Dámaso Conde said, was "a reencounter with the young version of ourselves".
 
With this new session, Underground Andaluz reaffirms its place within the Festival de Málaga as a platform for recovering and promoting independent and unique Andalusian audiovisual productions.