Completed - CATALAN, SPANISH - Drama - 87 minutes
A group of filmmakers are shooting a Western in Carche (Murcia), in an area where Orson Welles wanted to film a classic western fifty years before and never rolled. This will change the routine of the local residents, especially the children, who are approaching with curiosity and suspicion.
Year of production : 2010 Director(s) : Fran RUVIRA Writer(s) : Fran RUVIRA Cast : Frank FEYS, Javier MONZÓ, Jorge YAMAN, Montserrat CARULLA, Sonia ALMARCHA Producer(s) : Ferran MONJE (Canónigo Films), Xavier CRESPO (Dacsa Produccions)
Orson West is a feature film that combines documentary and fiction. Three parallel stories roaming through actual events and old time legends…just like in the Western movies… The first story tells of a film crew arriving in a small village in inland Alicante (Spain), with the intention of shooting a film in the dry, windswept lands forming an arid landscape of exceptional luminosity reminiscent of the old Wild West. A group of village kids are out playing in the wasteland, when they come upon the film set and end taking part as extras. The arrival of the crew sees the return of the leading actress to her land of birth. This brings back hidden memories to the surface, as her inner conflicts trigger controversial emotions… Finally, the third segment of the film has the director play himself, as he attempts to unveil information about that mysterious Western that Orson Wells never really shot in this part of the world. His journey to the origins of Wells’ legendary film ticks like a detective story and bring him face to face with people who’d worked with the great director during his Spanish days. Orson West is about characters that venture into faraway lands, eternally on the quest of some place to conquer…These are people that have trouble in communicating and express themselves through silent gestures and quick glances, with their unexpressed feelings cautiously disguised. When confronting with the incomprehensible world of adults, the children in the film teach us that the only lands that are still to be conquered are those of the imagination. In summary, Orson West is a realistic, intimate and poetic film about people void of any moral ties but, most of all, it’s meant to dig to the roots of the very innocence of Cinema.
Country(ies) : SPAIN Start of shooting : March 2010