La bola negra (The Black Ball)

Before he was murdered at the start of the Spanish Civil War, the openly gay writer Federico García Lorca penned the first four pages of the novel La bola negra. The title refers to the social exclusion of a gay character. Ninety years later, filmmakers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi are reclaiming the queer history of their homeland. For some time now, the duo have been actively contributing to greater representation of the LGBTQIA+ community in Spanish art, culture and media. Inspired by García Lorca’s unfinished work and a play by co-screenwriter Alberto Conejero, they explore, connect and celebrate the lives of three gay men in 1932, 1937 and 2017. Their ambitious and compelling epic, shot on 35mm film, proudly pays homage to classic melodrama with a contemporary flair. This earned them the Best Director Award at Cannes, shared with Paweł Pawlikowski for Fatherland (also screening at this edition of the FFG).