Los montes

José María Martín Sarmiento’s graduation film, made whilst he was a student at the Institute of Higher Cinematographic Studies (Paris), Los montes is set in a remote and almost abandoned village in the Bierzo Alto region, on the outskirts of the province of León. Oscillating between satirical fiction and reality, the film follows the mourning of the village’s last man and the remaining six elderly women who live there. Amidst the village’s isolation, the harshness of agricultural work, and the seasonal return of the summer pilgrimages, community ties and oral tradition are evoked as forms of resistance. The film was nominated for the César Award for Best Documentary Short Film.