Occidente (The West)

An exiled fugitive film director, named H, returns to the industrial city he fled long ago, in a time and place unknown. GLORIA, the working-class woman he left behind and whom he loved, struggles to survive monotony.

But H, unable to conform, convinces her to escape beyond civilisation, a place no one remembers.

  • Jorge Acebo Canedo
    Director
  • Jorge Acebo Canedo
    Writer
  • Maria José García
    Producer
    Transeúntes, Paula
  • Jorge Acebo Canedo
    Producer
  • Francesc Garrido
    Key Cast
    "H"
    Alatriste, Mar adentro, Smookin Room, La película de nuestra vida, Emergo
  • Paula Bertolín
    Key Cast
    "Gloria"
  • Mario Gas
    Key Cast
    "Chatarrero"
    Amic/Amat, Adela, Los días del cometa, Bilbao
  • Gonzalo Cunill
    Key Cast
    "Andrei"
    Altamira, Stella cadente, Héroes, La carta esférica
  • Isak Férriz
    Key Cast
    Las distancias, Knightfall, El cónsul de Sodoma
  • Carlos Villaoslada
    Cinematographer
  • Uriel Wisnia
    Executive Producer
  • Nerea Ferrero
    Art director
  • Manu de la Reina
    Editing
  • Álvaro Cruz
    Sound
  • Laura Folch
    Costume designer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Occidente
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Feature
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 39 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 20, 2019
  • Country of Origin:
    Spain
  • Country of Filming:
    Spain
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Red One 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1,85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Temporada Alta Festival 2019
    Girona
    Spain
    November 5, 2019
    Spanish Premiere
    Official selection
  • Ponferrada International Film Festival 2019
    Ponferrada
    Spain
    October 5, 2019
    Official selection
  • Torino Underground Cinefest 2020
    Torino
    Italy
    March 22, 2020
    European Premiere
    Official selection
  • Indiecinema Film Festival 2020

    Official selection
  • Filmoteca de Catalunya
    Barcelona
    Spain
    July 17, 2020
    Spain
  • Mescalito Biopic Fest 2020

    Italy
    November 9, 2020
    Official selection
Director Biography - Jorge Acebo Canedo

Jorge Acebo Canedo was born in 1974 in Linselles-Nord (France) and currently lives in Spain. He studied film direction at the Centre d´Estudis Cinematogràfics de Catalunya. "Occidente" is his first feature film, a love story between defeat and dystopia, a radical essay about the evils of western culture.

As film director, he has developed before several short projects, among them "On relations (De las relaciones)", which gets the Jury Special Mention in the 55 ed., of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Cinema Academies).

After this award, the movie continues its journey by numerous national and international festivals, including The Cannes Festival (short film corner), Premiers Plans de Angers, Cinema Jove de Valencia -where it wins the award to the best sound-, Fresh film Fest of Karlovy Vary, Sitges International Film Festival, Latin Media Festival and Planet in Focus in Toronto, Ambulart in Hamburg, International Film festival in Bradford, Saint Petersburg International Film Festival, Mecal in Barcelona or the Sala Marsillach Festival in Madrid, where he obtains the first place. On the whole, the list has more than 60 festivals.

He has completed in 2016 "Habitar oralmente el mundo", a documentary about the Barcelona poet, died in 2008, José Luis Giménez-Frontín, with the participation of famous poets and writers from Spain.

He has worked as TV director for Endora Productions and Mogambo (2008/09), in several programs broadcasted by Canal 9 TVV.

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Director Statement

The materials that compose this project come from many diverse cultural sources: It is constructed not only by the history of its characters, but also from the history of cinema itself, images and references from movies, also from painting and from photography, with the intention to create from those sources our own discourse.

This project is aimed to all audiences, beyond offers and fashions. Spectators who search in the cinema and other art forms those things that question the world directly. A questioning to the audience way of interpreting reality, their reflections about their place in the world, and to the most personal emotions, far from narrative clichés.

In conclusion, "Occidente" is somehow a classical story –a return to the past and a later run away without solution- driven by characters who live in a time that seems to have abandoned them to their solitude.