Winter

Pep and Margalida live at Son Gornals, a century-old estate located between Porreres and Felanitx. Retired and in top form, they make sure the farm is always running smoothly. Pep feeds and fattens the animals; rabbits, chickens, lambs, pigs. Each winter he buys eight piglets, which he cares for and feeds every day of the year, until the day of the slaughter. On this day, the whole family gathers in Son Gornals; old and young work hard in the slaughter, while enjoying a very traditional family celebration. With the clan assembled and diligent, and the wisdom and sharpened cleaver of Toni, the butcher, the slaughter of Son Gornals is celebrated once again. With the pantry full, winter can come.

  • Pau Pericas
    Director
  • Pau Pericas
    Writer
  • Manel Carrasco
    Writer
  • Laia Zanon
    Producer
  • Patricia Franquesa
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    S'Hivern
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 1, 2018
  • Country of Origin:
    Spain
  • Country of Filming:
    Spain
  • Language:
    Catalan
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 2K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2,39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Pau Pericas

Pau holds a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Barcelona and a Master’s degree in Contemporary Film and Audiovisual Studies from Pompeu Fabra University. After almost ten years of working in production for national and international television, film and advertising, Pau began working as a filmmaker and photographer, mainly in the field of advertising. He recently shared the cinematography
of the television programme Aeroport (TVC) and took the still photos for the series Sé Quién Eres (Telecinco). In addition, he is a professor of Design and a graduate level professor of Stop Motion Animation at Bau, University Design Center. S’Hivern
is his first documentary short film. He is currently working on a feature film about a community of Capuchin monks in Barcelona.

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Director Statement

Autumn is the time to fill the pantry and, along with preserves, it is filled with food from the slaughter. For those who practice it, this ritual is not just the sacrifice of an animal for consumption; it is also a celebration of fraternity with friends and family, with songs and laughter, in a festive atmosphere.
Given the depopulation of large rural areas, the progressive dismantling of families that are united around the farm, the great transformation that food culture has undergone in recent years, and the institutional sanitary controls, this tradition seems to be vanishing. Every day there are fewer Mallorcan and Catalan families that come together to celebrate the slaughter in a traditional way. Primarily, as a representation of a long tradition that is disappearing, the purpose of S’Hivern is to contribute to the formation of collective memory.
At Son Gornals, during the slaughter, death is experienced in a natural way, integrated into an intergenerational social and cultural festival, which celebrates in fraternity the rural tradition of preparing food for the winter.
Faced with an image of thousands of transgenic chickens piled up in a factory, our disgust is clear and unanimous. When it comes to a family killing a pig - which has been cared for and fed for a whole year - for their own consumption, in an ancestral and festive day, the judgement is not so obvious.
S’Hivern is the (re)presentation of the cycle of life, set in a rural community that is continuing with its traditional ways. It is a documentary of creation that invites the audience to experience an idea of the French theorist Jean Louis Schefer: “The body, the animal, the being in action on the screen, they leave us something as they pass by”.