The Spanish film "Sorda" wins the Latin American Critics' Award for European Films at the FICG
As a way of promoting European cinema in Latin America, the Latin American Critics' Award for European Films was presented this afternoon, within the framework of the activities for the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) in its 40th edition , where the European Film Promotion (EFP) presented the award to the Spanish film "Sorda" by Eva Libertad .
From a selection of 19 films, 30 film critics from 13 Latin American countries chose "Sorda." The other finalists were "Little Trouble Girls" by Ur ška Djuki ć (Slovenia) and "Switzerland" by Petra Volpe (Switzerland).
The film is based on the short film of the same name nominated for the Goya Awards in 2023 , "Sorda" and stars Miriam Garlo , the first deaf protagonist in Spanish cinema, who is also Eva Libertad's sister and plays Ángela, and Álvaro Cervantes who plays Héctor.
"Today, Álvaro Cervantes and I (Eva) are here representing the entire team. It's an honor to receive this award. For many years, I've seen how Miriam, who is my sister in real life and is the protagonist of "Sorda," has been struggling to live her deafness from a luminous place, as a condition and not as a deficiency or a stigma. And the fact that she has shared with me her way of seeing, of being in the world, of perceiving it, of feeling it, which is very different from mine, has enlarged my life experience," shared the director upon receiving the award and before the film's screening at the FICG Film Library.
For Libertad, "Sorda" can infect and tinge people with other diverse ways of seeing and being in the world, because for her, if we only focus on the hegemonic and normal way of loving, feeling, and perceiving in society, we will miss out on all the richness and diversity of life.
"I like to think that with this award, besides hopefully helping "Sorda" reach Latin American audiences, I like to think that with this award, we are celebrating and valuing all of the diversity of the human experience," Libertad added.
While Álvaro Cervantes shared that he spent a full year preparing for his character, which included learning sign language, he also acknowledged that Miriam was key to his performance by sharing her personal life experiences to help him understand this mixed-race couple and their adversities.
In its second edition of the Latin American Critics' Award for European Films, the award-winning film "Sorda" tells the story of Ángela, a deaf woman, and her hearing partner, Héctor, both expecting their first child. During the pregnancy, Ángela must deal with her family's fears that the baby will be born deaf, as well as society's expectations of what motherhood should look like, in a context where there seems to be no space for her.
The film criticizes the need to work for more inclusive spaces, so as not to make people with disabilities invisible. "Sorda" presents various scenes that reaffirm the social exclusion that Ángela faces, because despite literally being pregnant and knowing how to read lips, it is not to her that the doctors address themselves; they all speak through Hector.
When their daughter Ona is born, Angela and Hector will have to learn new ways of carrying out their relationship. What previously seemed relatively easy thanks to Hector's almost complete renunciation of listening spaces, now seems to have a line dividing the hearing world from the non-hearing world.
As the film unfolds, we see the fears Angela faces with the arrival of Ona, in a motherhood completely different from the social concept of what it means to be a mother, from the curious and disconcerting looks of other mothers who look strangely at how Angela communicates with her daughter through sign language, to the protagonist's self-exclusion from exercising her own motherhood.
The film, in addition to winning the Latin American Critics' Award for European Films, is part of the FICG's inclusive cinema program.
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