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Veinte años no es nada

Joaquin Jordà
2004 Spain 117 minutes Spanish

In the late 70s, Spain went through difficult years of industrial, social and political reconversion. Workers were at last able to claim their rights and reforms In 1979, the employees of Numax, a company manufacturing electrical appliances, occupied and managed their factory. Joaquin Jordà  filmed their experience (Numax presenta…) and told how they went 77 from euphoria to doubt. The film’s final scene shows a party and, twenty years later, provides the starting point for an enquiry into what has become of the Numax workers. One is now a taxi -driver, another is a cook and yet another has gone back to studying, whilst another has left town. This is the portrait of a generation and a social class that has lived through “industrial reconversion”… doubts, wanderings, happiness and misfortune give matter for thought. During the years following the Numax experience, Spain experienced violence, a failed military coup, the first leftwing government post Franco, terrorism… what commitments do those who lived through the “Transition” have today?

Joaquin Jordà

1935-2006

Réalisateur et scénariste (notamment pour Marc Recha sur Pau et son frère), critique, enseignant et acteur (notamment pour Juan Antonio Bardem et Basilio Martín Patino), il réalise avec Jacinto Esteva le film manifeste de l’Ecole de Barcelone, Dante no es únicamente severo en 1969. Les difficultés de ses films avec la censure l’incitent à s’exiler en Italie, où il réalise plusieurs films militants ou alternatifs (dont : Portogallo paes tranquillo, 1970; Il perché del dissensso, 1970). De retour en Espagne, il reprend son activité d’éditeur et de traducteur, avant de réaliser Numax presenta (1979), chronique d’une occupation d’usine, dont Veinte años no es nada est la suite. Sa filmographie alterne fictions et documentaires où la mise en scène vient constamment troubler la chronique, ou la remettre en perspective : El Encargo del cazador (autobiographie d’une génération par le portrait de Jacinto Esteva, 1990), Un Cos al bosc (1996), Monos com la Becky (1999), De nens(Jeux d’enfants, 2003).

Production :
Ovideo TV
Editing :
Núria Esquerra
Sound :
Jordi Bonet; Dani Fontrodona
Photography :
Carles Gusi

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