Villamediana uses his family history to unravel hidden memories of kabbala in Spain. With contemporary images, found footage, archival material, film, literature and ancient Hebrew texts, he creates a new cinematic language for unearthing cultural history.
Fact and fiction mingle in a remarkably detailed film essay that utilises fascinating split-screen images to reveal how small elements in everyone's life are accidentally linked to major events in cultural history. Filmmaker and critic Daniel V. Villamediana tries to get a grip on hidden memories of Spanish kabbala using his family's Jewish history. He utilises the complex structure of a Hebrew text as the basis for a new cinematic language. Stories of diaspora, exile and exodus from family history meld with Spanish history in which heterodoxy, freedom and rebellion were always threatened. Villamediana lives in Germany and his films seek out cultural idiosyncrasies. Using his contemporary reality, the German context and this era, he manages to open history up to dig down to obscured memories. IFFR
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