El último verano

For the past three decades projectionist Miguel Ángel has been travelling all over Spain where he organises improvised open-air film screenings during the summer. This quirky man, whose two life passions are time-honoured 35mm film and the flamenco, has nevertheless been experiencing hard times in recent years. He has witnessed the decline of celluloid film, relentlessly driven out by digital formats. But the costs of new projection equipment, which offers an almost inhumanly perfect visual experience, are considerable; the economic crisis affecting Spain hasn't helped, either. For Miguel Ángel's travelling cinema the coming summer might well be the last. The debuting director recasts a very human story into a discourse on a profession in gradual decline. Her precisely composed observational documentary might also be taken as a more general belief that technical progress needn't necessarily benefit society since it might cause us to lose sight of certain values. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)