We are pleased to welcome producer Pau Subirós for this special advance preview of La Plaga, followed by a post-screening Q&A chaired by Chris Perrium, Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Manchester.
La Plaga is the first feature length film from Catalan director Neus Ballus and premiered last February at the Berlinale’s Forum. It has already received numerous prizes and nominations, including Best Film at Motovoun Festival (Croatia) and a European Parliament nomination for the LUX Prize. It has also been nominated for the European Discovery category of the European Film Awards – past winners of this award include Steve McQueen’s Hunger and Laurent Cantet’s Human Resources.
Telling the intertwining stories of five local characters, the film offers a moving portrait of life in the outskirts of Barcelona. Raül is a farmer trying to produce organic food. Lurie is a Moldavian wrestler, scraping a living helping Raül on the farm. Slowly, their personal histories entwine with those of three solitary women: Maria, an elder who has to leave her life-long country house to live in a retirement home, Rose, a nurse from Philippines who has just arrived in the country, and Maribel, a prostitute with ever-diminishing clients.
Pau Subirós worked freelance in cinema production for many years before founding the company El Kinograf in 2007, where he has produced several documentaries, TV series, and short films. Alongside his career in cinema, Subirós has a strong interest in social and economic theory (he has a degree in Philosophy and Social Anthropology and a Masters in Economic History) and has collaborated with research groups from the University of Manchester and the Open University of Catalonia.
This special screening forms part of the Annual Conference of the Anglo Catalan Society held at The University of Manchester from 1-3 November 2013.
With the support of the Federació Internacional d’Associacions de Catalanística, in association with El Kinògraf Film Productions, and facilitated by the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, The University of Manchester.