Imanol Rayo’s “Dog Days”This ambitious look will focus on family, the challenges faced by adolescents, climate change, irreversible transformation, and the impact of it all.
The project, which won this year’s main prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum, is the Basque filmmaker’s first original script. His other films include “Two Brothers” “Death Knell,”These were based upon books.
Talk to Variety, Rayo says the story’s origin lies in a phenomena that has been transpiring in Spain for a long time, namely the popularity of campsites located at reservoirs across the country, to where middle-class families flock during the summer holidays.
However, the reservoirs, which were built during Francisco Franco’s reign, flooded and destroyed 500 villages, forcing their population to flee. Due to the continual drought, many of these villages submerged in water have seen their waters recede over recent years.
“The reconversion of a space expropriated long ago, which resulted in submerged villages and a rural exodus, into a space for vacation draws attention for its paradoxical nature,”Rayo
It can be described as follows: “a sensual summer story”Rayo claims that Rayo’s film combines themes of love and family relationships. Rayo also suggests that the tale considers how human intervention affects ordinary people’s lives, landscapes, habits, or lifestyles. The film weaves “three interrelated elements: a campsite, a reservoir, and the ruins of an old abandoned village.”
The campsite is about to be closed to make way for the reservoir’s expansion, an expropriation that echoes that of the village years ago and the resulting exodus of its inhabitants.
The story’s themes of irreversible change are also seen in the coming of age of Leire, the 15-year-old protagonist, in her family and in the actions of the engineer in charge of increasing the reservoir’s size.
Like “Two Brothers” “Death Knell,” “Dog Days”Deals with the changing dynamics of family relationships.
“The traditional family has been a fundamental pillar in Basque and Spanish society,” Rayo explains. “There is a strong Judeo-Christian tradition and this has marked the country’s sociological paradigm.”
This tradition is very much alive in “Two Brothers,”It was established in the 1960s and is now declining “Death Knell,”This happens a few decades later. “’Dog Days’ marks a turning point, as it portrays a family of today, and the paradigm shift is complete. The old values will be left behind, but part of society still resists adapting to the times.”
Rayo is also interested in studying the effects of climate changes on a very dear area, the region Yesa in the northern Province of Navarre.
“For me, in this case, before the story, even the characters, there are the spaces where the action will be located, the climate and it’s environment. … It’s a very special environment, very earthly but metaphysical at the same time. It reminds me of Monument Valley, and also of the magical Australian landscape of Peter Weir’s ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock.’”
He says that the ongoing drought has devastated the area and that the authorities are currently expanding the reservoir and raising the Yesa Dam.
Predators are humans that are able to hunt. “been devouring resources without caring about the consequences in the medium or long term until now,”Rayo said. To deal with the climate change effects, humans must be aware of “forced to squeeze even more out of those already scarce and vulnerable resources.”
It doesn’t rain, so more reservoirs are needed to store water for irrigation in traditionally rain-fed areas to irrigate very profitable crops that are exported but that do not generate local wealth or help the local population, Rayo argues. Instead, they are transported faraway using fossil-fuels for the benefit and comfort of the wealthy.
Rayo intends to film the film there in 2024 if everything goes according to plan.
While Rayo’s first two films garnered strong reviews and secured oversees distribution, the third, “Iñigo,” was a very personal work that has seen only limited distribution – it has mostly played in ecclesiastical venues and not in theaters or festivals – and has had little press coverage.
“Iñigo”
Courtesy Imanol Rayo
Javier Godino is the film’s sole actor. There is no dialogue. The story tells of Ignatius, a 16th-century soldier who undergoes a spiritual conversion and becomes a Catholic priest. “Iñigo” premiered last year at the Basilica of Loyola in Azpeitia as part of the 500th anniversary of Saint Ignatius’ conversion.
“‘Iñigo’ closes a stage in my filmography,”Rayo. “It is a very unique film, created outside the industry but with industrial means.”
Like “Dog Days,” “Iñigo”Lamia Producciones is also producing the film. It remains to be determined if the film will be released in the U.S.
“In principle, a specific distribution in the U.S. has not been contemplated, but we are open to it,”Rayo