The Visit and a Secret Garden
(La visita y un jardín secreto)
Irene M. Borrego / Portugal, Spain / 2022 / 65 min
Málaga Film Festival
Biznaga de Plata Best DirectingDocumenta Madrid
Best Spanish Film Audience AwardIBAFF Murcia
Best Feature FilmAlcances
Official Jury's Special MentionPanorama Internacional Coisa de Cinema
Official Jury's Special MentionDoclisboa
HBO Max Best Film AwardL'Alternativa Barcelona
National Film PrizeBergamo Film Meeting
Best Documentary FilmFEROZ Awards
Best Non Fiction Film
Pricing
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Spanish with English subtitles
With Isabel Santaló, Antonio López, Fernanda Suárez, Amelia Martínez Callejo
This award-winning portrait of elderly, forgotten Spanish painter Isabel Santaló astutely reflects on memory, oblivion, and the creative process while posing the question of what it means to be both an artist and a woman.
Santaló, whose abstract work was well-regarded during the 1960s, is also the filmmaker’s aunt. Their strained relationship brings with it an examination of ethical documentary film creation. For all those with a relative who has chosen their own path in life, away from the norm or the expected, The Visit and a Secret Garden offers insight and grace.
Through her niece’s visits and the voice of artist Antonio López (The Quince Tree Sun, Víctor Erice), the only painter who remembers her, we shape a multifaceted portrait film that takes a surprising turn.
Related Subjects
About the Director
As a Ji.hlava Emerging Producer, Borrego has made significant contributions both as a director and producer. Her directorial portfolio includes nine acclaimed short films and her debut feature, The Visit and A Secret Garden. Beyond her personal projects, she collaborates with fellow filmmakers and explores the intersections between cinema and other art forms.
Press
“Viscerally mesmerizing (...) just beautiful, a non-fiction film even full of suspense. Among the magnificent squad of Spanish female directors a new star is born: Irene M. Borrego.” – Carlos Loureda, FilmAnd
“The quintessential definition of what for decades we have referred to as non-fiction cinema: that is using narrative devices of fiction cinema to stories deeply rooted in reality.” – Matías G. Rebolledo, La Razón
“A documentary that challenges the expectations of the audience, a film that defies all the norms of biopic films and with a protagonist that has not the slightest intention to be vindicated.” – José A. Cano, Cine con Ñ
“The brightest moments of the film come through the interventions of Santaló, whose description of the creative process -based on the search for the accident- creates an emotional turmoil you cannot escape.” – Laura Carneros, Otros Cines Europa
“A brutally honest film.” – Enric Alberó, El Cultural
“One of the most significant and exciting surprises of Bergamo Film Meeting 2023 is without any doubt the pungent, generous, and hyper personal film by Irene M. Borrego, The Visit and A Secret Garden.” – Stefano Coccia, CineClandestino
“Irene M. Borrego’s The Visit and A Secret Garden rescues Spanish painter Isabel Santaló from oblivion.” – John Hopeweel, Variety
Notes on the Film
“The Visit and a Secret Garden was triggered by the return to my hometown, my pending encounter with Isabel Santaló, and out of fear. Without hiding the footprints from its shooting –or even my own process–, the film reflects on memory and oblivion, art and the creative process; posing the question of what it means to be an artist and a woman. But this is not a biopic film, it actually challenges that genre. This is a film about the gaze and the right distance. Many of us are searching for light among the shadows.
This is why for me it was so important not to rely on a distracting aesthetic. The key was achieving a ‘complex simplicity’. I felt the urge to film with a certain sobriety, without any tricks, avoiding building the film’s strength upon dazzling cinematography or sound. I sensed that using somber language, minimalist even, was the fairest way of portraying Isabel: the cinematic form had to adapt to her personality, and even her disappeared paintings.
The Visit and a Secret Garden represents my cinematic compass: the firm belief in the expressiveness of what is often dismissed as small and meaningless, as well as the epiphanies we may experience when filming that; framing my films in very concrete spaces, to focus on the people that inhabit them and the human fragility that we all share.
In the end, this is an invitation to look twice where we rarely would stop. Behind the door of an old flat, a film was hidden, and with it a secret garden.”
– Irene M. Borrego, Director