Escena 24

About the festival:

ESCENA. Oslo Ibero-amerikanske filmdager is a platform for cultural exchange between Norway and the Ibero-American region.

The aim of the festival is to promote the interest in film from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations of Europe and the Americas and showcase the vibrant film expressions of these nations.

The films convey social, political, and historical aspects of this cultural context as well as the challenges currently facing the societies of the region. Even though these nations share a common cultural mainstream; they form a rich tapestry of diverse backgrounds that translate into their cinematic expression.

ESCENA also provides a gathering place and discussion forum for film enthusiasts, for those with roots in the region and others who have an interest in Ibero-America.

About ESCENA 24:

ESCENA24 will present 9 films with wide international recognition of great directors and filmmakers from 6 different countries.

This year’s edition brings forward the most recent award-winning films from Ibero-America, from intimate family dramas like La Casa(2024, Alex Montoya), 20.000 Species of Bees (2023, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren) and Betânia (2024, Marcelo Botta), to satiric comedies like PUAN (2023, María Alché, Benjamín Naishtat) passing through profound reflections on indigenous cultures of Latin America like Gods of Mexico (2022, Helmut Dosantos) and Yana-Wara (2023, Oscar Catacora, Tito Catacora)

Also, we are proud to present the premiere of Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film “The Room next door”, the filmmaker’s first English speaking film awarded with the Golden Lion and the Brian Award at the Venice International Film Festival.

We are also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Alejandro Amenabar´s classic “The Sea Inside”, a sad but heartwarming classic about dignity in life and death that catapulted its director and its star, Javier Bardem, to the international stage.

The Room Next Door

Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature presents a powerful reflection on mortality, dignity and friendship. The film continues the Spanish director’s interest in death that has been marking his latest projects. Despite the jump to a new language the film is still characteristically a Pedro Almodóvar film that continuous the director’s career, eager for more stories to tell.

After the film, Daniel Ovalle Costal, professor at the Barlett School in London will hold a conversation about Almodóvar’s artistic choices in the film's residential scenography.

Tickets on sale Oct. 3

Yana-Wara
27. October 18:15 TICKETS

Oscar and Tito Catacora's recent film is not afraid to tell its story explicitly, addressing issues such as the systematic abuse that women suffer at the hands of men in rural communities in southern Peru. Yana-Wara tells the story of the title character, a thirteen-year-old girl who lives in the countryside with her grandfather, Don Evaristo after her mother’s death. Yana-Wara is proof that cultures, no matter how diverse or unfamiliar, express universality, a point of intersection that puts them in dialogue with each other.

20.000 Species of Bees
25. October 17:30 TICKETS

Estibaliz Solaguren's feature film debut is a gripping coming-of-age story about a young girl who, during a summer among her Basque family and their beehives, struggles with her own identity. The lead role is brilliantly played by Sofía Otero, who at the age of eight is the youngest person ever to win the Silver Bear for best lead role at the Berlinale.

Gods of México
26. October 18:00 TICKETS

A documentary that delves into forms of resistance to modernization in rural Mexico and depicts the great diversity of indigenous peoples and afro-descendants throughout the country. It is a tribute to these people, to their daily work, and to those who fight to preserve their cultural identity.

La Casa
26. October 21:00 TICKETS

The film adaptation of the Eisner-Winning graphic novel of the same title by artist Paco Roca. Three siblings gather after the death of their father, to discuss whether to sell the house where they used to spend so many summers or if one of them wants to keep it. The events of the weekend will spark the memories of their relationship with their father and with each other. The film captures the uneasy yet comforting sensation of returning home.

Betânia
24. October 21:00 TICKETS

Betânia, a 65-year-old family matriarch, is on a turbulent ride on the ever-shifting sands of time. In the wake of her husband’s death, Betânia is forced to move back to the village where she was born, leaving behind a lifetime of memories and a simple, agrarian lifestyle without electricity on the edge of a newborn Brazilian desert not so far from Amazon, the “Lençóis Maranhenses National Park”.

Havet innenfor / The Sea Inside
27. October 20:30 TICKETS

Award-winning film by the Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar, who received the Oscar and Golden Globe for best international film and two awards during the Venice Film Festival: The Jury's Special Prize, and the Best Actor award for Javier Bardem. The film shows the story of Ramón Sampedro, who was bedridden for almost thirty years. Aware that his condition will never improve, he fights to be able to die with dignity.

Nayola
27. October 16:15 TICKETS

Portuguese filmmaker José Miguel Ribeiro tells an emotional intergenerational story about three women from the same family in Angola's deadly civil war. The film is a striking combination of gripping storytelling and intense 2D animated visualization. The film has received several awards in international animation festivals and premiered at the Annecy Film Festival.

Puan
25. October 21:00 TICKETS

Puan is an authentic tragicomedy that knows how to move on both levels with equal conviction and an admirable awareness of its ends and the means it uses to achieve them. The film is a reflection of the world of public universities, together with all their stereotypes, perpetual confrontations and political and social background. The film foresaw Argentina’s education crisis, where the government’s austerity plan for public education triggered one of the largest demonstrations in recent history.