A Film About Couples

(Una Película Sobre Parejas)

Natalia Cabral, Oriol Estrada / Dominican Republic / 2021 / 89 min
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  • Locarno Film Festival

    Open Doors Section

  • Gijón International Film Festival

    Best Spanish Feature, Best Script, Best director

  • Biarritz Latin-American Film Festival

    Critics Award, Special Mention for best acting

  • FICIC | Cosquín Film Fest

    Special Mention of the Jury

  • Roma International Film Festival

  • Miami Film Festival

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Spanish with English subtitles

Directed by Miriam Lies’ award-winning team, Natalia Cabral y Oriol Estrada, A Film About Couples is equal parts a candid exposition of the cinematic industry and a joyful exploration of marriage.

Natalia and Oriol are a couple of filmmakers in their thirties who have a little daughter named Lia. One day, they receive an offer to direct a documentary and they decide to make a film about couples in love. Natalia and Oriol interview many couples, always wanting to know how they get along and what their most typical problems are. But as filming progresses, wounds from their own relationship begin to open up, fights and doubts seem to be endless. But finishing the film will be their opportunity to reformulate their love for each other and their love for cinema.

Press

“A true cinematic gem. Every moment releases a joyful and meditated reflection on the condition of filmmaking in today’s society.” – Mattia, Madmass Magazine

“This introspective look at the lives of a couple of directors testifies the fascinating creative power of cinema to organize the world in the form of a story in order to question its uniqueness at every moment.” – Cédric Lépine, Mediapart

“At the heart of this funny film lies a little story within the story. It’s all in knowing how to tell it, and this nice pair of filmmakers hit the bull’s eye, bringing more than a smile to the audience.” – Sarah Mataloni, Close Up Magazine

“It’s a fiction film about the shooting of a documentary and, at the same time, a documentary about the shooting of a fiction film. With a lot of humor and lucidity, the film demystifies the work of the cinema profession and reveals the realities and difficulties that exist today when filming in Dominican Republic.” – Nicolas Azalbert, Head of programming, Festival Biarritz Amérique Latine

“Probably my favorite Dominican comedy. Smart, funny, raw and completely true to its creators reality. Natalia and Oriol went all in to create the drama behind this docu-fiction experiment.” – Victor Pineyro, Seventh Art Studio

About the Director

Natalia Cabral (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) and Oriol Estrada (Capellades, Catalonia, Spain) are award-winning filmmakers whose work live on the borderlines of fiction and nonfiction. Graduates of the prestigious EICT V Cuban Film School, Natalia and Oriol founded Faula Films in 2012 in order to provide a creative platform for the development and co-production of independent filmmaking in the Caribbean.

Their debut documentary feature film You and Me (2014) premiered at Visions du Réel and won several awards at Cartagena IFF, Trinidad & Tobago IFF, Havana IFF, Márgenes, Austin and Santo Domingo, among others. Their second documentary film Site of Sites (2016), supported by DOCTV Latinoamérica, premiered at IDFA – International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The film was presented in the US at the Neighboring Scenes Showcase of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, was official selection at Biarritz, Cartagena and Lima, and was listed as one of the 25 best Latin American films of 2017 by Cinema Tropical.

Miriam Lies (2018) is the couple’s first fiction feature film, co-produced by the Catalan arthouse production company Mallerich Films Paco Poch, with support of Fonprocine, the Ibermedia programme and the Latin America Fund of the Tribeca Film Institute.

The film premiered in the official competition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it obtained a special mention from the jury. Later, it was awarded with the Golden Colon for Best Film at the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, the ALMA Award for Best Spanish Film Script at the Gijón International Film Festival, Best Director at the Punta del Este Festival, the SFCC Award from the French Critics at Cinélatino Toulouse, among others.

Miriam Miente is considered among the most notable films of Latin American cinema and is particularly outstanding within the showcase of Dominican Republic cinema, winning in 2020 the award for Best Film at the ADOCINE Awards of the Dominican film industry and the ADOPRESCI critics awards.

A Film About Couples (2021) is their latest work. The film was screened at the Locarno, Rome, Miami, Hamburg and Cartagena International Film Festivals. It won the best film award from the Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma, and a special mention from the jury at the Biarritz Latin American Film Festival. It also won three awards at the Gijón International Film Festival, including Best Spanish Film and Best Director.

Notes on Film

“Spectators of our films often ask us what it’s like to co-direct as a couple. It’s a question whose answer changes according to the day. Sometimes we can share crazy anecdotes about our struggles of egos or about our bittersweet quests to achieve the films we set out to make. Other times we argue and wonder if it’s worth continuing. But like most couples, we move on, trying to show the best side of our relationship and our persona.

One day, we realized that it was very important for both of us to share the creative challenge of trying to make cinema with another person who is dissimilar from you because of differences of sex, culture, and personality and the vital challenge it can be if you are also in love with this person.”

– Natalia & Uri, Directors

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