Institut Ramon LLull

Albert Serra to be a main figure at Ficunam, the most important cinéma d’auteur film festival in Mexico.

Cinema.  01/06/2023

Mexico City’s most influential cinéma d’auteur film festival will host a retrospective on the renowned Catalan filmmaker’s filmography titled Devoción Impía: el cine de Albert Serra (Impious Devotion: The Cinema of Albert Serra) from the 1st to the 11th of June. The programme, co-ordinated by the Institute Ramon Llull, also involves a presentation of the director’s first ever exposition, which will be on show at the Museo Tamayo.




The 13th reiteration of FICUNAM, which will take place from the 1st to the 11th of June 2023 in Mexico City, will include showings of nine films by Catalan director Albert Serra. The retrospective will also include a TV series that will be broadcast by TV UNAM and Singularity, an installation produced by the Institute Ramon Llull for the Venice Biennale Arte in 2015.

This special programme has been made possible thanks to the co-organisation agreement between FICUNAM and the Institute Ramon Llull with the objective of promoting the internationalisation of Catalan film production in one of Mexico’s most recognised film festivals.

With adjectives like ‘radical’, ‘iconoclastic’ and ‘provocative’, the festival will shed light on one of Catalonia’s most internationally renowned directors. Nominated for the Cannes Palme d’Or for his last film Pacifiction, Albert Serra will also present his first ever individual exposition in Mexico, Roi Solei, a performance based on his film The Death of Louis XIV, which tackles issues such as death and decline. In the work, the director depicts the French king in the moments before his death. The exposition, which will be on show until the end of June at the Museo Tamayo under the curation of Lena Solà Nogué, will be accompanied by a series of projections in the museum’s auditorium, alongside a conference headed by Serra himself, conceived as part of the museum’s public programme.

The films that will form part of the retrospective at the FICUNAM are: Honor de cavalleria (2006), El cant dels ocells (2008), El Senyor ha fet en mi meravelles (2011), Història de la meva mort (2013), Cubalibre (2013), The Death of Louis XIV (2016), Roi Soleil (2018), Liberté (2019), Pacifiction (2022), Els noms de Crist (a mini-series of 14 parts, 2010) and Singularity (a five-channel digital video installation, 2015).

FICUNAM offers an abundant academic programme and a series of publications that involve creators with specialists and the public, encouraging the exploration of new trends and reflections on cinema’s role in our society. The attendants will be able to enjoy the projections from the exhibition in affiliated university cinemas such as el Centro Cultural Universitario, el Cinematógrafo del Chopo, la Casa del Lago, la Cineteca Nacional, el Complejo Cultural Los Pinos, Cine Tonalá, el Museo El Eco and the MUAC, among others. What’s more, viewers from all over the country will be able to see the projections on free-to-air television or streaming platforms, some of which are available throughout Latin America.

This is not the first time that the Institute Ramon Llull and FICUNAM have joined forces for the circulation and internationalisation of Catalan cinema in Mexico. In 2019 they presented a retrospective on Pere Portabella’s filmography. Mexico is a country that maintains a historic link with Catalonia in the context of intercultural exchanges. Catalonia has been guest of honour at numerous festivals and industry fairs, such as the 2004 Guadalajara International Book Fair and the 2018 Guadalajara International Film Festival. The 13th reiteration of FICUNAM, which will take place from the 1st to the 11th of June 2023 in Mexico City, will include showings of nine films by Catalan director Albert Serra. The retrospective will also include a TV series that will be broadcast by TV UNAM and Singularity, an installation produced by the Institute Ramon Llull for the Venice Biennale Arte in 2015.

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