Catalan Rumba Opens DocsBarcelona
… and it did so with a full cinema of spectators, who expressed their enthusiasm over the sweet film about the sweeet and charismatic man on the screen and in the cinema, where he got standing ovations. The film is a very entertaining portrait of a man, who is ill and often has to get oxygen to go on as he has a dream… from the catalogue:
“Petitet is a Catalan gypsy pursuing a dream. Former musician and son of one of the “palmeros” (hand-clapping performers) of the mythical Peret, he suffers from a rare chronic disease that causes acute muscle weakness. In his fifties, he wants to fulfil the promise he made to his mother before she died: to take Catalan rumba to the stage of a great theatre. The dream begins to
come true when a band of gypsy musicians (talented but undisciplined) gather together to try and play alongside a great symphony orchestra at the Gran Teatre del Liceu!”.
DocsBarcelona is an international documentary film festival but the opening night was performed totally in Catalan language with a tribute to the Catalan rumba and a man, who is living from being a scrap collector, whose heart beats for music.
The international part of the festival takes off today with two films at the CCCB Theatre: “Wonderful Losers” by Arunas Matelis and “Experimento Stuka” by Pepe Andreu and Rafa Molés. The film by Lithuanian Matelis – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4048/ – will be shown not only in Barcelona but also around Catalunya.
