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SAN SEBASTIÁN 2019

Review: Window to the Sea

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- Emma Suárez leads the cast in this drama directed by Miguel Ángel Jiménez, focusing on the final days of a woman who travels to a Greek island and finally finds freedom

Review: Window to the Sea
Emma Suárez in Window to the Sea

Bilbao, in the Spanish Basque Country, and the island of Nisyros, in the Aegean Sea (Greece), form the glorious backdrop to Window to the Sea [+see also:
trailer
interview: Miguel Ángel Jiménez
film profile
]
, the new fiction film directed and co-scripted (together with Luis Moya, as with Ori [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) by Madrid filmmaker Miguel Ángel Jiménez; a work which stars Emma Suárez, previously the suffering mother in Pedro Almodóvar’s penultimate film Julieta [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile
]
, and which was presented at the EITB Gala of the 67th San Sebastián Film Festival. The grey, leaden light of the Basque city at the beginning of the film reflects a pivotal moment in protagonist Maria’s life: this 55-year-old woman has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Before making her way to hospital to begin a tough course of medical treatment, she decides to travel to Athens with two friends (and their respective partners), embarking upon the journey she’s always dreamed of. But, once there, the women head off alone to a remote island, leaving the men behind in order to live the sense of complicity and camaraderie which unites them to the full.

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This tiny, dazzling yet humble slice of paradise is called Nisyros. The women enjoy a few hours of madness, until their men make an appearance, curtailing the intimacy they’d been developing across the island’s beaches and lands. It’s for this reason that Maria, in a decisive scene where we see her making her ways towards her friends, suddenly decides to turn on her heels, unseen, let her hair down and start to explore the island. From that point onwards, she’s alone on the island, making her way around on a motorbike and stumbling across beautiful locations. Not only does she discover the dazzling, colour-filled world of Nisyros - she also discovers herself and her freedom.

And against the backdrop of her son’s phone-calls from Bilbao, asking her where she is and why she’s not coming home, Maria is given the opportunity to experience one last love, passionate and generous, which will help her to find happiness in this final stretch of her life. Earlier on in the film, we hear a crucial conversation between the female friends, where one of them says "We’ll never have the life we thought we’d have when we were young", and where Maria replies "Some might: those who dare, those who aren’t afraid".

Miguel Ángel Jiménez shows no fear in his treatment of the delicate subject explored in his film, where the shadow of death relentlessly follows in the wake of his protagonist. Nor has he attempted to create a picture-postcard image of Greece; instead, he shows the country’s simpler, more authentic, human side. He uses ellipses and silences to sidestep the more challenging aspects of the illness and, therefore, to spare the audience’s tears when faced with the protagonist’s suffering. Window to the Sea doesn’t opt for the path of sadness and pity. Instead, it’s a film exuding hope and emotion.

Window to the Sea is produced by Spanish firm Kinoskopik Film Produktion and Greek group Heretic, together with Spanish outfit Gariza Films. Heretic Outreach are in charge of sales, while Spanish distribution is in the hands of Filmax.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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