Cuerda's All Is Silence kicks off Valladolid Festival this weekend

He reunites with writer Manuel Rivas after the international success of Butterfly’s Tongue (1999). Quim Gutiérrez and Miguel Ángel Silvestre star in the drug-trafficking thriller set in the Galician coast.

Women rule the official selection — the UK’s Sally Potter will screen Ginger & Rosa, about two female friends (Alice Englert and Elle Fanning) involved in radical politics during the 60s in London. Germany’s Margarethe von Trotta brings her new feature, Hannah Arendt, about the famous philosopher. Oscar nominee Deepa Mehta will introduce Midnight’s Children, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s popular novel set during India’s independence. 

As traditional, history and politics are big subjects in the festival. Goran Paskaljevic, three times winner of the Golden Spike award, will present When Day Breaks, about a retired music professor who discovers that his real parents died on a concentration camp. Cate Shortland brings Lore, a drama set in Nazi-era Germany about a teenager daughter of Nazis who falls for a Jewish boy.

From Morocco, Nabil Ayouch screens God’s Horses, about the suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003. Germany’s Christian Pertzold will present Barbara, about a doctor who lives in East Germany in 1980 and wants to scape to the West to meet her lover. 

Coming from Sundance, Liberal Arts, by Josh Radnor is a romantic comedy about a depressed thirtysomething guy who falls for a 19 year old girl. Mika Kaurismaki, a Festival favourite, shows Road North, about a concert pianist whose life is on the rocks and meets his father after 35 years of disappearance. 

Mexican Luis Mandoki screens La vida precoz y breve de Sabina Rivas, a drama set in the Mexican border about youngsters gangs. Italian Daniele Vicari shows Diaz - Don’t Clean Up This Blood, a portray of the turmoil during the Genova demonstrations in 2001. 

Mexican director Jorge Fons presides an internationaljJury that includes Spanish film-maker Judith Colell, Belgium director Geofrrey Enthoven, cinema critic Jaume Figueras, actres Rosa María Sardá and director Imanol Uribe. 

This year, the Valladolid Film Festival will pay tribute to actress Angela Molina and music composer Alberto Iglesias with the Honor Spike. 

Documentaries feature heavily in the festival’s Tiempo de Historia section, which will showcase new films from well known directors. Chapero Jackson will screen Mundos Sutiles, a film about the 100 years of Antonio Machado’s book of poetry Castilian Plains.

A Spanish film legend, Basilio Martín Patino (Nueve Cartas de Berta, Caudillo), is back behind the camera ten years after his last film with Libre Te Quiero, about the protests in Madrid Puerta del Sol in 2011.

A production of Almodovar’s El Deseo, The Labèque Way, by Félix Cábez (Buñuel in Hollywood), focusses on the internationally renowned pianists Katia and Marie Labèque.

David Trueba (Salamina Soldiers) screens Positive Generation, about Zimbabwean musicians who fight against AIDS and stars Spanish music stars including Alejandro Sanz, Antonio Carmona, Juan Luis Guerra and Andrés Calamaro. La Luz Oculta, by Roberto Lozano, documents misery in three places of the world: Guinea, Central African Republic and Argentina.

Mabel Lozano’s Madre portrays different women’s experiences of motherhood, while Juan Marsé Habla de Juan Marsé, by Augusto M. Torres, looks at the work of well known novelist Juan Marsé ahead of his 80th birthday. Finally, Austrian-Spanish co-production Separated, by Natalie Johanna Halla, travels to Palestine, Western Sahara and Slovakia to show the struggle of those who are isolated by politic conflicts.

Adolfo Dufour, winner of Tiempo de Historia in 2009 withSeptiembre del 75, will screen Nosotros centred on the fate of a group of workers of the bankrupted Sintel company. Iñaki Arteta (Trece Entre Mil, El Infierno Vasco) will screen Testigo Involuntario. Nicolás Redondo Urbieta, about the eponymous syndicalist and his influence in Basque history.

Two short films will also screen out of competition: Luis Miñarro (Family Strip) presents 101, about the work of Manoel de Oliveira, and Ensayo de Una Revolución, by Antonio Lebajo and Pedro Sara, portrays last year’s protests all over Spain.