Josep
Josep
Synopsis
France, Spain, 2020, 74’ In French, Catalan, Spanish and English with English and Slovenian subtitles
February 1939. Spanish republicans are fleeing Franco’s dictatorship to France. The French government builds concentration camps, confining the refugees, where they barely have access to hygiene, water, and food. In one of these camps, separated by barbed wire, two men will become friends. One is a guard, the other is Josep Bartolí (Barcelona 1910 – NYC 1995), an illustrator who fights against Franco’s regime.
Directed and Art Direction by: Aurel
Written by: Jean-Louis Milesi
Editing: Thomas Belair
Music: Sílvia Pérez Cruz
Sound Design: Nils Fauth
Voices: Sergi López, Valérie Lemercier, David Marsais, Gérard Hernandez, Bruno Solo, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, François Morel, Alain Cauchi, Thomas Vdb, Sophia Aram
Producers: Serge Lalou, Jordi B. Oliva
Production: Les Films d’Ici Méditerranée, Imagic Telecom, FRANCE 3 CINÉMA
Distribution: The Party Film Sales
It is clear to me that as the subject of the film is drawing, I will assert not only the choice of animation, but the power of drawing to intrinsically relate everything that a real image could never do. The drawn line will be at the centre of the narrative. Even the colours will be reduced to the bare essentials. To the strict minimum. They will back up the drawing, but not overwhelm or paraphrase it.
- Aurel
Through this film I wish to question the notion of commitment, resistance, testimony and of course uprooting. The resistance fighter is the one who physically opposes the unbearable, even at the cost of his life. The journalist is the one who observes and must preserve his life in order to testify. Bartolí was both. He took up the pencil when weapons became useless. My grandfathers chose to take up arms when they had to. I have my pencil to say what can be better.
- Aurel
The most striking thing, when, like me, one discovers the work of Josep Bartolí, is the violence of his drawings of the concentration camps. I took this violence to heart and decided to base my story on these drawings and this testimony...
- Jean-Louis Milesi (screenwriter)
Awards and festivals (selection):
- Best Animated Film, César Awards 2021
- Best Animated Feature Film, European Film Awards 2020
- Best Animated Feature Film, Días de Cine Awards 2021
- Best Animated Film, International Cinephile Society Awards 2021
- Audience Award, Athens IFF 2020
