- The London-based organisation has moved online because of the pandemic and is hosting its screening of ‘Eroski Paraíso’, directed by Jorge Coira and Xesús Ron, on Vimeo On Demand
- The film will be available on 27, 28 and 29 November for all countries apart from Spain where it is exclusively available on Filmin
London, 26th of November 2020. The Galician Film Forum (GFF) in London is continuing to promote Galician audiovisual production despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The organisation is returning to its normal screenings but they will now be online and will begin with the international premiere of ‘Eroski Paraíso’ on Vimeo On Demand. On 27, 28 and 29 November Jorge Coira and Xesús Ron’s film will be available via this platform across the world in all countries apart from Spain where it can be found on Filmin. In terms of the film’s international trajectory to date, it has only been shown outside Spain in the official selection at the Festival Cinespaña de Toulouse.
The film will be screened in Galician with subtitles in English and renting it for 48 hours will cost €3.95. All money will go directly to the film’s creators. With this screening the GFF is returning to its normal programme of events which was interrupted when the U.K. implemented a lockdown that meant that the screening of ‘Eroski Paraíso’ in April and Patricia de Lorenzo’s trip to London to participate in the event could not take place.
Both de Lorenzo and Jorge Coira are going to appear in a video in which they will respond to questions and comments from people who watch the film and send their thoughts to the Galician Film Forum’s social media channels. This will mean that the conversations that normally took place after the GFF’s in-person screenings can continue to happen.
‘Eroski Paraíso’ is based on a play of the same name by the theatre group Chévere which won a major national theatre prize in 2014. After touring Spain and attracting more than 30,000 audience members, the directors Jorge Coira and Xesús Ron decided to make it into a feature-length film. The film is about a documentary that Álex (Cris Iglesias) is filming on a set where the old Paraíso nightclub, which is where her parents Eva (Patricia de Lorenzo) and Antonio (Miguel de Lira) met, is superimposed on the Eroski supermarket that took its place. The film is a comedy that explores our collective memory, the twists and turns of life and how relationships change in small communities. At the latest edition of the Mestre Mateo awards, the film won Best Actress and Best Actor for de Lorenzo and de Lira. It also won the award for best feature-length Galician film at the Festival Primavera held by Cine de Vigo.
Galician Film Forum
The GFF began in 2015 when a group of Galician emigrants in London came together to create a space for Galician cinema in the British capital. The group has three main aims: to be an exhibition platform for Galician cinema, to be an observatory for new audiovisual projects created in the diaspora in the U.K. and to be a space for reflecting on cinema and Galician culture in universal terms.