Born in Vigo, Spain in 1983, he studied psychology at the Complutense University in Madrid and then film at the city’s Centro Universitario de Artes (TAI) and at the New York Film Academy. He completed his film education with a master’s in creative documentary at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. In collaboration with other artists, he has developed video art workshops and installations at institutions including the Berlin University of the Arts. His second feature film „Lúa vermella“ (Red Moon Tide) premiered in the 2020 Berlinale Forum and went on to screen in MoMA and at over 50 festivals.
What was your starting point for “El sembrador de estrellas”?
Tokyo at night is dazzling, a fantasy of hypnotizing lights. Observed with distance and stillness, if you let yourself be carried away by them, you can find a meditative atmosphere there. The first thing I tried to capture was this peaceful feeling, hidden within the vertigo of a megalopolis like Tokyo. And two plastic references emerged very quickly to work the image: Zen landscape painting -from where I could underline the idea of emptiness and silence- and the cyberpunk aesthetics of films like Blade Runner -to build futuristic neon architectures by superimposing planes-.
Do you have a favourite moment in the film? Which one and why this one?
I like a lot when the trains appear crossing the atomized city as if it were a night sky. They look like shooting stars. This visual parallelism was another germinal idea from where the film grew up. The sound and visual rhythm of the trains bring beautiful feelings. And I like how, at the end, these trains change into a symbol when we start to hear the farewell haikus.
What do you like about the short form?
I like the power that they have as a very condensed idea. Also the freedom they have with respect to the story, which usually dominates feature films. I work in the border between cinema and contemporary art, and I feel that in the short films, for a cinema audience, you can focus more on the plastic and conceptual ideas, and let the story be in a not so high priority place. In feature films, as you need to keep the attention awake, you need to work strongly in the storyline. A short film can be the explosion of a single idea and I like this glare.
Photo © Dorothea Tuch
Berlinale Shorts 