Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
The famous Jacque Brel song “Marieke” provides the debut film by Belgian director Sophie Schoukens with its title. Its about a young girl who looks for love from older men, in search of a father figure to compensate for the real one who died long ago and who she can no longer remember. The father’s death is a taboo subject for her mother who does all she can to block her daughter’s access to the past.
Schoukens took three years to make the film, partly because she had a lot of problems finding funding. “We’re used to seeing fathers and sons, not mothers and daughters. This is a story about a young girl who sleeps with older men, which is a more sensitive subject than if it were about older men going out with younger women.”
The director had already won several awards for her short film Alice ou la vie en noir et blanc which also dealt with the relationship between a mother and daughter, against the background of the problem of anorexia.