Basilio Martín Patino: Freedom and Independence

Parallel Sections
Octavia
Basilio Martín Patino
Spain, 2002
35mm | 130min. | Colour
Production: La Linterna Mágica

Photography: J. Luis López Linares
Editor: Martin Eller
Screenplay: Basilio Martín Patino
Music: Giovanni B. Pergolesi
Actors: Miguel Angel Solá, Margarita Lozano, Antonia San Juan, Blanca Oteyza, Menh Wai Trinh, Mónica Cervera, Aurora Bautista, Berta Riaza, Paul Naschy
 
Sinopsis
Following the latest upheavals, with utopian ideals discredited and human rights debased in accordance with the new free-market world order, Rodrigo sees the signs of a new witch hunt and seeks refuge on his old family estate, which he left forty years ago. He has spent his life fighting for freedom, pacifically or though violent action, in an attempt to redress the postwar imbalance. In a symposium at the University of Salamanca, his home town, he denounces military excesses that go beyond any possible constitutional jurisdiction.
"Strange paths of perfection", he says, "that lead to life as a professional politician." Once again, perplexing times. Returning to his barely recognisable family roots, Rodrigo has to accept his past and confront some new realities: Manuela, a daughter he didn't know he had, who was kidnapped in Colombia while working as a missionary; and the daughter she had there, the unconventional Octavia, trapped between her family's fanatical past and a no-less-worrying future, who staunchly defends her right to live differently.
 
Festivals
Festival de San Sebastián, 2002
London Film Festiva, 2002
Roma Film Festival, 2002
Premio a la Mejor Película - Tiburon International Film Festival, 2003