A desperate search, three deaths, two robberies and an escape are all thrown into the mix in Víctor Iriarte’s ambitious reimagining of film noir.

Foremost by Night by Víctor Iriarte

Where: Glasgow Film Theatre – GFT (12 Rose St, Glasgow G3 6RB)
When: Sunday 07 April, event starts at 19:20

Original title: Sobretodo de noche
Director: Víctor Iriarte
Cast: Lola Dueñas, Ana Torrent
Year: 2023
Duration: 1h 35m
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Noir
Themes: Historical, political, Crimes, Loss
Countries: Spain, Portugal, France
Age: +16

Hitchcock, Melville, Almodóvar, Bolaño and Córtazar all coexist in a film that delivers some of the most mesmerizing images, lights and colours seen in recent Spanish cinema. Including the presence of legendary actresses Lola Dueñas (Volver, Talk to Her, Zama) and legendary Ana Torrent (The Spirit of the Beehive, Cría Cuervos).

Victor Iriarte takes us to one of the darkest episodes of modern Spanish history. Victims’ associations estimate 300,000 newborn children were abducted between 1940 and 1990 in Spain. FOREMOST BY NIGHT takes this hugely political plot to explore the way modern literature and cinema can still reinvent storytelling today. A film filled with astonishing beauty and mesmerizing colors in which Irirate surrounds himself with a dream team crew coming from some of Spain’s most iconic film hits.

Starring iconic Spanish actresses Lola Dueñas (Volver, Talk to her, Zama) and legendary Ana Torrent (The Spirit of the Beehive, Cría Cuervos) and newcomer Manuel Egozkue, the film is co-written with Isa Campo (Maixabel, Entre Dos Aguas), produced by the great Isaki Lacuesta and Valerie Delpierre (Summer 1993) edited by Ana Pfaff (Alcarrás, Libertad, Sacred Spirit) and garnished with the music of one of Spain’s greatest contemporary musicians, the Basque Goya-winning Maite Arroitajauregi Mursego. Despite such A-team, perhaps the greatest discovery of this gorgeously-shot film is the discovery of young cinematographer Pablo Paloma, who fills the screen with 16mm-shot images, lights and colours that explode in such a way one has to really assimilate if these are some of the most beautiful images one has seen in a film in recent times.

“This is a revenge story. A story of anger and violence”. Almodovar’s regular collaborator Lola Dueñas sets the tone of this film with her voice and the director’s intentions right from the start “There is only one thing they have not been able to take from me: my story, and how I tell it.” From then on, FOREMOST BY NIGHTtakes us on a journey from Madrid, to San Sebastian, to Porto in what becomes a film within a film, a novel within a novel. A film in constant exploration of the formal possibilities of filmmaking, and a continuation of the work of Latin American boom revolutionary writers like Roberto Bolaño or Julio Cortazar, as well as recent filmmakers like Mariano Llinas or Lucrecia Martel.

The film oscillates between noir, political drama, road movie, melodrama, written correspondence and ghost stories. Imagine a Kill Bill-like badass revenge story, paint it with the style of a classic film noir movies (Hitchcock, Melville), then it becomes a colorful Almodovar melodrama, and then we sit and relax on the shores of the Douro river in Portugal… everything is possible in Victor Iriarte’s fiction debut, an incredible film that premiered in Venice Film Festival – Giorante degli Autori and has wowed audiences across the globe, from Chicago to London, from Vienna to Habana.

By the way, one final question: what happens with the characters when the film ends? Where do they go? Do you ever wonder?

Winner of FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film at Valladolid Int Film Festival, Best Director for Víctor Iriarte at Toulouse Cinespaña, Consentino Award for Best Director at Almería International Film Festival.