Hierro Gabe Ibañez

In a recent seminar on cinematography I attended, some big names of the Spanish movie scene explained that filmmakers who come from the advertising or the music video industry, handle the camera at the same time they’re viewing through it. Apperently, this leads to them missing the actors’ expressions while they’re trying to shoot in focus or pay attention to the light.

Gabe Ibañez, who makes his debut –after several video clips, spots and short films- with a feature film called Hierro, is probably one of those few who have had the great idea of signing up a cameraman. This makes that in this case the light doesn’t outshine the characters and vice versa (?), even if some imagery has clear similarities with previous works.

The thriller, chosen by the Godfathers of the Semaine de la Critique –Juan Antonio Bayona and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo-, tells the story of a young mother who looses her son during a ferry journey on their way to the island of Hierro. Alone in an unknown and deserted place, she fights with everything to find her lost child, not wanting to admit the harsh truth –a point which has a lot in common with the main character of Bayona’s film The Orphanage. Many frightening moments plus a splendid performance of the main actress certify that, in Spain, the thriller is one of the genres on the rise.

Andrea Franco