New trailer for ‘Forest of Shadows’, by Koldo Serra.
On February 16, Koldo Serra’s first feature debut, ‘Forest of Shadows’. Antonio Toca had already advanced us a trailer, but it was not yet the official one and, on the other hand, it is no longer available. Now, on the official website, we can see the new trailer. And also on the Filmax website.
Northern Spain, late 70s, hottest summer in recent years. Norman (Paddy Considine) and Lucy (Virginie Ledoyen) are an English couple who are not going through their best moment. A vacation with some friends, Paul (Gary Oldman) and Isabel (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) happens to be the solution.
Far from London, what is presented as an idyllic weekend of nature and hunting in the farmhouse recently bought by Paul, will not end as they would have wished. The cultural clash with the locals led by Paco (Lluis Homar) and the fortuitous meeting of an abandoned house, will unleash a spiral of violence between them.
With a more than international cast, the film features Paddy Considine, Virginie Ledoyen, Gary Oldman, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Lluis Homar, Álex Angulo, Patxi Bisquert, Andrés Gertrudix, Yaiza Esteve, among others…
Koldo Serra, born in Bilbao in 1975 and graduated in Fine Arts specializing in audiovisuals, began his career in the world of short films with ‘Sick of you’, a video piece with which he won the Cinema Jove in 1993.
After this, ‘La Noche de Autos’ (1995), ‘Háchame!’ (1996) and ‘Mother’s Love’ (1998). The latter, co-directed with Gorka Vázquez, has toured a multitude of national and international festivals in which he has won several awards.
In 2003 Koldo signs his most recognized short film, ‘El tren de la witch’, which can be seen at this link. With it, he won various awards, including Sitges and the Méliès d’Or for Best European Fantasy Short Film.
In addition to making video clips for groups such as Extremoduro, El Sueño de Morfeo or Doctor Deseo, Koldo has worked as an assistant director and story board artist in numerous television spots (Licor 43, Bizkaia Turismo, Galicia Calidade…), in short films (Snuff 2000, 7:35 in the morning…) and video clips (OBK, Extremoduro, Total Sinister…).
His other passion is graphic design, highlighting his work as a poster artist for different short film festivals. She has published a comic book album titled The Beast of the Day.
The first word that comes to mind when explaining what The Backwoods is is “incommunicado”.
The Backwoods talks about isolation, isolation that generates confrontation. Confrontation in the couple, between different social classes and between cultures. Sometimes there is more distance in a marriage than between cultures separated by hundreds of kilometers.
The plot, which takes place during a summer weekend in the late 1970s in northern Spain, introduces us to two couples who fortuitously see how an idyllic holiday weekend ends in a spiral of violence. Violence, which being intrinsic to the most animal human being, emerges when the survival instinct emerges. In a film with great visual potential (the setting is unbeatable) the protagonists and antagonists (not “good” and bad) will see how their worlds collide where the worst of each one will come to the fore. I insist that we have pretended that there are no good or bad people, but characters with their good virtues, and why not, with their defects as well.
Starting from very clear references, such as the cinema of the 70s and the visual code of the “westerns”, The Backwoods aims to tell a universal story in a very specific environment, the Euskadi of the late 70s. And always, for an orographic, aesthetic and perhaps somewhat masochistic theme (because of the vague part that touches one), clarifying that the intention has never been of a political nature. Powerful images of armed men, walking between the eternal green and the mist of dawn in the mountains.
“One’s intention has always been to try to take care of the image, getting closer to reality, without high-caliber technical fuss, being sparing in dialogues, sounds and music. The beautiful setting (the spectacular forests of the Artikutza nature reserve in Navarra, or Itxaso in Guipúzcoa) helps to achieve it. A beautiful and raw world at the same time, like life”, declares Serra himself.
