Skip to main content

Javier Fesser Biography

Javier Fesser

(Javier Fesser Pérez de Petinto; Madrid, 1964) Spanish filmmaker.After filming two remarkable comedies, he gained notoriety with the drama Camino (2008), a controversial film for its vision of religious fanaticism that won six Goya Awards in 2009.

Born in the Womb From a family with artistic concerns, Javier Fesser enrolled in naval engineering; Then he changed his studies for communication sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, although he would not get a degree either.In 1986 he created Línea Films, a company dedicated to making advertising spots, from which he developed campaigns for brands such as Telefónica or BMW.In 1992 he founded, with Luis Manso, the Pendelton Film production company, with the idea of ​​alternating advertising production with film production.

Javier Fesser

A at the same time that the television campaigns followed, Fesser began his journey in the cinema with the direction of short films.His debut could not have been more encouraging: his first short, Aquel ritmillo (1994), in which the dreamlike universe that would characterize his future productions is already appreciated, was his first great success, in addition to his first I work with one of his fetish actors, Luis Ciges. Aquel ritmillo won the Goya award for the best short fiction film in 1995, as well as the awards for the best short film at the Peñíscola Comic Film Festival (Castellón) and the audience at the European Film Festival of Angers (France).This first short was followed shortly after by El secdleto de la tlompeta (1995), a disconcerting narrative labyrinth with which Fesser corroborated his talent for directing and which was awarded in Clermont-Ferrand (France) and in Regensburg (Germany).

In 1998 Fesser presented his first feature film, El milagro de P.Tinto , a hilarious surrealist film with a script by Fesser himself and his brother Guillermo ( member of the humor group Gomaespuma).The film, starring Luis Ciges, was one of the box office successes of the season, with more than 1.3 million viewers, and made it known to the general public.It won the Goya award for the best special effects and was one of the nominees by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the category of best new direction.

At the dawn of the new century, Fesser created the Notodofilmfest festival, a competition for short films published on the Internet and which in 2009 reached its eighth edition.He signed the short film The little surprise and the fourteen-chapter series for the network Javi and Lucy ; released in December 2000, it exceeded two million downloads.He soon embarked on what would be his second film, The Great Adventure of Mortadelo and Filemón (2003), an adaptation-also with his brother Guillermo-of the popular comic book characters created by Francisco Ibáñez.Backed by his debut feature and by the popularity of Ibáñez's strips, success was immediate, and the film became one of the highest grossing in the history of Spanish cinema, with 5.5 million viewers.He also obtained five Goya awards (best editing, best artistic direction, best production direction, best special effects and best makeup and hairdressing).

After this blazing success, Fesser changed his third to undertake a charity project.He signed, with Chus Gutiérrez, Patricia Ferreira, Pere Joan Ventura and Javier Corcuera, the collective documentary In the world at a time , five stories that addressed the five priorities of Unicef.The result of their contribution was Binta y la gran idea (2004), a short shot in various locations on the banks of the Casamance, in southern Senegal, which emphasized the need to educate girls.In Senegal, he would also compile material for another production, Zero Seven (2005), a particular update of Don Quijote de la Mancha commissioned by the Ingenio 400 project. Binta y la gran idea received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Oscar for best short film in the 2007 edition.

In 2005, Fesser also directed the short film The cabin and published the short novel Three days in the Valley.My Benedictine experience .The following year he was the scriptwriter of Cándida , a film with the one that his brother Guillermo made his film debut.After the commercial successes of his first two feature films, Javier Fesser decided to take a radical turn in his cinematographic career and undertook what to date has been his most ambitious project: Camino .

Camino (2008)

The director (this time also a screenwriter, producer and editor) addressed the case of a girl in this film sick with cancer whose mother, an Opus Dei activist, tries to make her see that her illness is a blessing from God.Inspired by the real case of Alexia González-Barros (and also in others, as he would have to clarify later), the film was presented in the official section of the San Sebastián Festival, where it was widely supported by critics.It premiered on October 17, 2008 and sparked a heated controversy when the Opus Dei Information Office in Spain accused the director of "distorting" reality and offering a "false and manipulated" X-ray of the institution.Likewise, the minor's family publicly disagreed with the development of the film, and asked Fesser to explicitly clarify that the girl did not die as the film says (with applause and a sour priest shouting).

The truth is that the director had to issue a statement in which he recalled that the tape was a fiction and that the real events on which it was inspired "belong to several cases" and not just Alexia's." Camino -he said-aims to be an objective story, without prejudice or stereotypes." Despite the controversy raised and not starting as a favorite, Camino was the great winner of the 2009 Goya Awards, awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain, obtaining six of the seven awards To which it was nominated: best film, direction, leading actress (Carme Elías), supporting actor (Jordi Dauder), revelation actress (Nerea Camacho), original script and special effects.It had previously won the award for best film at the XIX José María Forqué Film Awards.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Joseph plateau Biography

Joseph Plateau (Brussels, 1801-Ghent, 1883) Belgian physicist.Professor at the University of Ghent, he carried out research work on static and fluid dynamics phenomena.He devised a strobe system for the study of vibratory movements.

Hissène Habré Biography

Hissène Habré (Faya-Largeau, 1940) Politician from Chad.Leader of the Front for the National Liberation of Chad (Frolinat) and the Northern Armed Forces (FAN), in 1978 he negotiated with the government of F.Malloum and became Prime Minister (1978-1979).Later he would be Minister of Defense (1979), but had to go into exile (1980), after coming into conflict with President G.Oueddei.Habré reorganized the FAN and, after overthrowing the president, seized power in 1982, being appointed head of state.With French support, he continued the fight against the prolific forces of Oueddei and the Libyan occupation of northern Chad.However, in 1990 the armed opposition, supported by Libya, eventually overthrew Habré.

Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize 2010

The recent award to the Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo with the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 has put the world's problematic socio-political in China and the fight against authoritarianism.Thus, the committee that awards this renowned prize at the same time condemns the Chinese communist regime .From History Today Online we propose a review of the political struggle of Liu Xiaobo. Liu Xiaobo is a teacher, intellectual and activist Chinese pacifist .He is 54 years old and currently imprisoned serving an 11-year sentence, accused of "subversion of state power" after the publication of a pacifist manifesto known as " Letter 2008 "But this is but one more episode of a long story of struggles and imprisonment of the recent winner of the Nobel Prize trong>. In 1989, the first momentous act of Liu Xiaobo in the fight for freedom in China occurs: the protest and killing of Tiananmen Square .At that time he was a professor at the Be...

Charvaka or Carvaka Biography

Charvaka or Carvaka (7th century BC) Indian philosopher.Having lost his great work, the Brihaspati sutra , his doctrine has come down to us through Jain, Buddhist and Hindu texts.Skeptic about the Vedic dogma, he sees the changing and fortuitous world and establishes the search for happiness and the pragmatic suppression of suffering as the end of man.

Gonzalo de Berceo Biography

Gonzalo de Berceo (Berceo, Logroño, around 1195-San Millán de la Cogolla Monastery, around 1268) Medieval writer who was the first poet in the Castilian language with a known name. Gonzalo de Berceo He was a clergyman and lived in the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla (Logroño), where he was ordained a priest, and in that of Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos).In the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla he officiated as a secular clergyman, and came to occupy the positions of deacon (around 1120) and priest (around 1237). Gonzalo de Berceo is the first representative of the so-called "mester de clerecía", a medieval school of men of letters (a qualification that at that time almost coincided with that of priest) whose main contribution was the dissemination of the Latino culture.Berceo inaugurated the path of scholarly poetry, in contrast to that developed by popular epic poetry and that of minstrels. Probably disseminated orally by minstrels, his work has a clear...

Johann neander Biography

Johann Neander (Göttingen, 1789-Berlin, 1850) German theologian.A Jew by birth, he converted to Protestantism.He was professor of ecclesiastical history in Heidelberg (1811) and in Berlin (1813).His main work is Universal History of Religion and the Christian Church (1824-1852), which covers up to the s.XV.

James Henry Breasted Biography

James Henry Breasted (Rockford, 1865-New York, 1935) American Egyptologist, archaeologist and historian.Specialized in the archeology of Ancient Egypt, he contributed notably to a better knowledge of Egyptian civilization. He studied at Yale University and later completed his training at the University of Berlin, a center with great archaeological prestige.In 1894 he was appointed professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, where he remained until his retirement.In 1900 he returned to Germany to collaborate in the writing of the first dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and between 1905 and 1907 he carried out expeditions to copy inscriptions of monuments until then unpublished.The results of this work were published in Ancient Records of Egypt (1907), an extensive work in five volumes. In 1903 he wrote The Battle of Kadesh , about the mythical campaign of Pharaoh Ramses II against the Hittites.In 1915 he was appointed Head of the Department of Oriental Languages ...

Chaïm Perelman Biography

Chaïm Perelman (Warsaw, 1912) Belgian philosopher of Polish origin.Professor in Brussels, he has studied philosophical arguments ( Argument Treatise , in collaboration with L.Olbrechts, 1958).Other works to highlight are On the arbitrary in knowledge (1933) and Studies of legal logic (1966).

International Labor Day

The International Workers Day , better known as the International Labor Day is happily celebrated on the May Day As a memorial holiday that refers to all workers.Curiously, not many people know what the events are that are commemorated during this date, and why this day was chosen in most countries of the world, paradoxically excluding the English colonies (New Zealand, United States, Canada, Australia, Wales, etc.) that celebrate it on other dates. Image Surizar The May Day It is a commemorative date determined by the Second International held in Paris in 1889, to honor the so-called Martires de Ch icago who lost their lives during a union protest. Its history goes back to the events produced by the Industrial Revolution in the United States .Towards the end of the 19th century Chicago it was the second most important city in the country in terms of industry, its companies being characterized by taking staff with a very wide working schedule, generating fe...

Francisco Bilbao Biography

Francisco Bilbao (Santiago, 1823-La Plata, 1865) Chilean writer and politician, one of the most prominent revolutionary intellectuals of Chilean society in the 19th century.He was detested as a "madman" and a "destroyer of society", but at the same time adored as a "genius precursor of great social upheavals". Francisco Bilbao Outstanding essayist, achieved political notoriety at age 21 during the government of Manuel Bulnes (1841-1851) with the publication of Chilean sociability (1844), in which he harshly criticized the Church, the clergy and the authoritarian system, and where he proposed some liberal political theories.For this he received harsh sanctions, which included the burning of his publication, the payment of a pecuniary penalty and the expulsion of his law studies.However, the large number of people awaiting trial at the courthouse paid the fine that had been imposed. Shortly after he left for Europe, where he contacted prominent le...