Special Screening on Saturday, 26th November 2016 at 6:30 pm in C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium

 

 

 

We will re-screen the film the Spanish film “Wrinkles” (Arrugas) which could not be presented during the recently concluded “The IIC Experience: A Festival of the Arts” 

 

 

(89 min; 2011; dvd; English subtitles)

 

Director: Ignacio Ferreras

 

 

 

Recipient of the Special Distinction Award (Features), Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2012; Goya for Best Screenplay – Adapted & Best Animated Film, Goya Awards 2012; and Mestre Mateo Award for Best Sound, Galician Audiovisual Academy Awards 2011

 

 

 

Feature-length animation from Spain's Ignacio Ferreras looks at hijinks in an old age home, adapted from Paco Roca's award-winning graphic novel.

 

 

 

An exceptional animated feature from Spain, Wrinkles imaginatively and sensitively explores one of the major issues confronting most of the developed world: how to look after senior citizens in a rapidly aging population. Following the ups and downs experienced by a retired bank-manager after he moves into a retirement home, this adaptation of Paco Roca's award-winning graphic novel represents a far from easy commercial sell. 

 

 

 

Ferreras' debut feature, the film almost entirely takes place in the very un-magical surroundings of an anonymous care-facility and tackles uncomfortable issues. Emilio (voiced by Alvaro Guevara) is a dignified, quietly spoken gent of unspecified advanced years, physically spry but mentally succumbing to the confusions and hallucinations of Alzheimer's. He's placed into a retirement home by his exasperated adult son Juan, where he's shown the ropes by wily, fast-talking Argentinian resident Miguel (Tacho Gonzalez).

 

 

 

Miguel is one of the more alert and astute "clients" of the institution, and thinks nothing of conning small amounts of cash from those more befuddled than himself to Emilio's bemused dismay. The script traces the changing course of Emilio's relationship with his new friend, an unmarried and childless man whose genially cynical façade might perhaps hide a more malevolent streak.

 

 

 

Economically adapted from Roca's critically-acclaimed 2007 text by four scriptwriters including Roca and Ferreras, Wrinkles takes a commendably unsentimental and nuanced approach to a complex subject, one that avoids melodramatic situations and simplistic characterizations while adhering to certain conventions of this particular sub-genre. While Emilio is essentially a well-meaning surrogate for the audience to explore the retirement home's spaces, ways and inmates, Miguel emerges as a fascinating, three-dimensional figure despite this being an old-fashioned example of 2-D animation, executed with 21st century digital technology.

 

 

 

His caustic, acerbic dialogue gives Wrinkles a consistently sharp edge of humour that offsets, but does not trivialize, the sadness and tragedy of such material. There's no shortage of genuine poignancy here and though Nani Garcia's score largely hits conventional, predictable beats, each tear is hard earned and never simply “jerked.” Ferreras' animation style is realistic and direct with close attention paid to tiny specifics of decor, clothing and gesture

 

 

 

(Collaboration: Embassy of Spain)