data sheet
COUNTRY Spain
PRODUCTION LGC Films, Siwa Productions
YEAR 2025
RUNNING TIME 70 min
SCREENPLAY Jordi Esteva
CINEMATOGRAPHY Jordi Esteva, Albert Serradó, Juli Suàrez
MUSIC Vicent Ségal
EDITING Jordi Esteva, Juli Suàrez, Xavier Pérez
CAST Miquel Roselló, Sebastián Roselló, Patricia Trigueros, Carmen Marqués, Sonia Piqué, Jordi Macaya, Javier Andrada, Albert Buendía, Mercé Sardá, Jordi Fornells, Marisa Abdala, Blanca Nieto, Antonio López, Guille Marqués, Bruixa
DISTRIBUTION Fromzero Cinema
INTERNATIONAL SALES Fromzero Cinema
CONTACT info@lgcfilms.com
contact
SIWA PRODUCTIONS
www.siwaproductions.cominfo@siwaproductions.com
JORDI ESTEVA
siwa1@mac.comSynopsis
Film inspired by the first chapters of my book "The Nomadic Impulse," published by Galaxia Gutenberg.
This fifth film by Jordi Esteva, in careful black and white, like the previous ones, moves away from the ethnographic or documentary genre to delve into the autobiographical. It narrates the adventures of an eleven-year-old boy, Miquel, who during a summer in the dark 1950s, dreams of traveling to unusual places awaken in him a longing for freedom and a nomadic impulse. A boy who traveled dreaming thanks to maps and geography books, adventure films, and his forays into the forest.
"Jordi Esteva's film is a marvel, and the poetry of its images has made possible the encounter between the old poet and the child who embarks on the initiatory path that will lead him to fulfill his desire for freedom, his dream of being a nomad, his stubborn will to be, without a doubt, an extraordinary artist".
Josep Massot, writer
The film is a masterpiece, with Jordi's attention to detail and his ability to imbue any image with beauty and mystery, elevating it to the status of a metaphor as if his gaze were Aladdin's lamp. There's a lot of disturbing material, symbolized by the omnipresence of insects from here and there: mantises, centipedes, even the marauding army (Esteva once wanted to be an entomologist), and even a mummification scene with the shadowy Imhotep and Anubis, a hallucination of the child, a “natural trip” when he falls ill with fever and readings, like a little Don Quixote. In this new genre Jordi immerses himself in, you can perceive the influence of Agustí Villaronga, his great friend who encouraged him to make films, and whom Jordi pays tribute to with references to the moral ambivalence of childhood, the Civil War, and even a shot from Pa negre.
A still from the movie El impulso nómada.
In the dark room, with Jordi Esteva’s camera moving through his memories, swayed by his voice and an extraordinary soundtrack (“50% of cinema is sound,” Villaronga used to tell him), we dive headfirst into Miquel's daydreams, in that summer of happiness, nostalgia, rite of passage, and disturbing encounters where reality and memory blend together: the child’s future and Jordi’s past, the village witch and the witchcraft of Ivory Coast, the snake crawling through the summer forests and the cobras of the Egyptian snake charmers, the water lilies and the sails of the Arab dhows of the sea. In a beautiful scene, the child looks up at the sky to see Sputnik 2 pass by with the dog Laika (a creative liberty, since it actually launched in November). And in another, defining everything that El impulso nómada is, he places his finger on an old globe and points to Socotra, the island that Jordi has put back on the map with his travels, books, and photos.
Some of us have managed to fulfill our wishes (or part of them) born from the days of that distant summer, whose end the film represents with the arrival of the rains and the return in the family Seat 1400. But Jordi Esteva has not only been able to fulfill his great desires, spreading them across the horizons of the world, but now he materializes the very root of his dreams. And thus, the golden remains.
Festivals
Awards
in the media
Director
Jordi Esteva (Barcelona 1951)
He is a film maker, writer and photographer who has always been fascinated by Africa and the Middle East thereby focusing most his activity as a journalist and photographer on this part of the world.
He spent five years in Egypt working for Radio Cairo International. His book Los oasis de Egipto (Lunwerg, 1995), shows a collection of images that result from the time he spent studying everyday life in the desert in Egypt. He was Chief editor and Art director of the Ajoblanco magazine from 1987 to the summer of 1993. In 1994 he participated in the UNESCO World Heritage Project for 2001 and was commissioned to photograph the Medina of Marrakech. In 1966 he was commissioned a photographic project to record the architecture of the Moroccan Atlas: Fortalezas de barro en el sur de Marruecos (Companía Literaria1996). Mil y una voces (El País/Aguilar 1998 and Círculo de Lectores1999), is a book of conversations with Arab artists and intellectuals of both sides of the Mediterranean about the challenge that Arab societies are facing to adapt to modern times. He then published Viaje al país de las almas, (Pre-Textos, 1999). This book is both a visual and written testimony of the African world of animism: its initiation rituals and spirit possession phenomena.
Los árabes del mar (Península/Altair) was published in 2006. This book explores the journeys of the old sailors of the Arabian coast who sailed along the various ports of the Indian Ocean aided by the monsoon and following a route that had remained practically the same since the times of Sinbad the Sailor.
February 2009: After two months in Ivory Coast, the filming of “Return to the Land of Souls” is completed.
2011 Return to the Land of Souls receives several international prices.
September 2011: Atalanta publishes the book “Socotra, la tierra de los genios” (Socotra, the Land of Djinns”).
This melancholic travel to the Island of Sindbad is extremely beautiful, extraordinary and thrilling” according to Babelia, the literary supplement of El País the spanish leading newspaper.
The book receives the V Price of Routes of the Cid Travel Literature.
Four years after the filming of “Return to the Land of Souls”, Jordi Esteva went back to the Ivory Coast to film “Komian”. The film recounts the search for a priestess possessed by the Spirit of a Panther. Filmed in black and white, with the rhythm of a road movie, the narrator travelled to Ghana to look for the only drummers able to accompany the priestess and invoke the powerful Spirit.
2014: Jordi Esteva returns to the island of Socotra to film “Socotra, the island of djinns”. The film has been fully edited and ready for the 2016 circuit of festivals.
“Socotra, the Island of djinns” is selected by festivals like Visions du Réel (Nyon, Switzerland), International Full Frame Film Festival (N.C. USA), Documenta Madrid y Festival de Málaga. RAI (Royal Anthropological Film Festival) UK, among others.
October 2017, Atalanta ediciones, publishes “Socotra” a book of photographs in black and White that includes the DVD of the film.
March 2019. RM and Museu Egipci de Barcelona publishes “The Oases of Egypt” in a bilingual Edition, English and Spanish, with a new treatment and added new images.
Summer 2021: He puts an end to his memoir "El impulso nómada" that Galaxia Gutemberg will publish at the beginning of autumn
More information in: www.jordiesteva.com
“It is a marvel, and the poetry of its images has made possible the encounter of the old poet with the child who embarks on the initiatory path that will lead him to fulfill his desire for freedom.”
“It's a beautiful thing, with Jordi's attention to detail and his ability to imbue any image with beauty and mystery and elevate it to the category of metaphor as if his gaze were Aladdin's lamp.”
