Urresola reveals his defense of sexual diversity at the Berlinale

Gemma Casadevall

Berlin (EFE).- The Spanish director Estíbaliz Urresola unveiled her film “20,000 species of bees” today at the Berlinale, a contender for the Bears at the Berlin festival, with a defense of sexual diversity, also among children.

“My desire was to contribute something, from my field of work, which is cinema, to the task of bringing positions that are apparently very distant closer together”, explained the filmmaker, after the screening of her film for the media.

Cinema can be a “tool” to “bring closer to multiple realities,” added Urreasola, whose film covers “multiple awakenings” around transsexuality.

The director (Bilbao, 1984) describes in her film the inner life and family, school and social environment of Aitor, the boy played by Sofía Otero, who does not feel comfortable with that name or with the neutral “Cocó”, as they also call him.

The director’s film is, in reality, an ensemble film, centered on a family nucleus, where the mother -Patricia López Arnaiz- represents the acceptance of the right to diversity, while the father -Martxelo Rubio- considers that with eight years It is too soon to give way to the “Lucía” that Aitor has inside.

These are two of the “distant” positions that appear in the film, along with those of the practicing Catholic grandmother -Itziar Lazcano– and a beekeeper aunt -Ane Gabaraín-, revealing multiple diversities.

Different perspectives on transsexuality

Many perspectives on transsexuality coexist in his film, from the restrictive to the tolerant, in a well-structured family, where love dominates even among those who do not understand what is happening to Aitor, either out of conservatism or fear of the problems that he will cause. , included in the school.

The weight falls on Sofía Otero, just as in the competitive Mexican film “Tótem”, she did it on Naime Sentíes, in her role as the daughter of a young, dying man, for whom her family is preparing a birthday party, with all loved ones, brothers, friends, colleagues, your partner and besides the girl.

The look of both girls moved the Berlinale, with two exponents of simple and close cinema. The Mexican Lila Avilés does it from the dynamism, with a script where each of her characters will be defined in a few strokes.

Urresola proposes a whole family organization chart, with dominance of the female constellation, about a marriage that, in addition to the crossing of identities of Aitor -or Lucía- is pointing to a separation and other conflicts.

Both productions are among the 19 candidates for the Bears at the festival, which will be delivered by the international jury led by the American actress Kristen Stewart and which includes among its members the Spanish director Carla Simón, Gold winner in 2022 with “Alcarrás”.

The official premiere of the Berlinale Palast, this Wednesday afternoon, will be attended by the Spanish Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, who is expected to be accompanied by his German counterpart, Claudia Roth.