VIDEO: Watch the Trailer for MY MEXICAN BRETZEL

A hybrid of fiction and documentary filmmaking, MY MEXICAN BRETZEL, the feature film debut of Nuria Giménez, uses silent home movies, fleeting snippets of sound, and diaristic narration to tell the story of Vivian Barrett, a wealthy Swiss woman, and her husband, Léon, a WWII pilot-turned-entrepreneur. Partial hearing loss doesn't impede Léon from creating a pharmaceutical wonder drug that changes their lives, propelling the go-lucky couple into a world of adventure, romance, and mystical truth-seeking. From the 40s through 60s, from the Alps to Le Mans to Manhattan to Hawaii, vulnerability, belonging, truth, and mid-century opulence are explored in a way that only the magic of cinema allows... with a dazzling twist.

Watch the trailer below!

The idea for the film originated in 2011, when Giménez came across a few home movies made by her grandparents, Ilse G. Ringier and Frank A. Lorang, mid-way through the last century. Based on that rich material, which shows the couple - she, of similar elegance to Ingrid Bergman; he, as burly as a circus strongman - travelling around the world (from Paris to New York, Majorca to Florence, between meetings with friends, excursions and lunches), the filmmaker set about planning a sophisticated and fascinating film structure: she wrote a diary on behalf of Barret, recounting specific moments of her existence, her worries and her innermost thought. She then illustrated those words with material selected from amongst her forebears' 50 reels of 16mm film.

In so doing, Giménez has crafted an impressive audiovisual trompe l'oeil, almost entirely lacking in sound, which involves the viewer reading the protagonist's memories in text form on screen. This text is perfectly matched to the images we see on screen, leading to a powerfully hypnotic effect. Such an exercise in storytelling and fantasy not only succeeds in portraying a wholly believable life, suitably endowed with light and shade, it also tackles a rather peculiar phenomenon: the need we feel to cling on to certain lies in order to escape from the unbearable side of human existence - its uncertainties, its insecurities and, above all, its fleeting nature.

The US premiere of MY MEXICAN BRETZEL took place at the New York Film Festival, after winning the Found Footage Award at Rotterdam, the Audience Award at Festival D'A, and Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Direction at Gijón International Film Festival. Genre-defying, it also secured nominations for Best Documentary at both the Gaudí and Goya Awards; at the latter, it was also nominated for Best New Direction.

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