03/02/2022 - Leire Apellaniz and Marc Sempere-Moya piece together a visual and aural jigsaw of this singer who eschews the conventional, and embraces heterodoxy, poetry and the occasional outburst

Originally presented at the most recent edition of the Seville European Film Festival and released this Friday (4 February) in Spanish theatres, courtesy of Márgenes Distribución, Cosmic Chant. Niño de Elche [+see also:
trailer
interview: Leire Apellaniz and Marc Se…
film profile] is a documentary that does not aspire to be a summary of the work, life and miracles of Francisco Contreras Molina, but rather aims to cobble together a collage of his personality with various jigsaw pieces, as indeed the movie’s poster does. How? Through the involvement of the people around him and the inclusion of performances executed expressly for this film, which was directed by the duo comprising Leire Apellaniz (the producer of such titles as The Sacred Spirit [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Chema García Ibarra
film profile] by Chema García Ibarra, a movie also filmed in Elche, and the helmer of the non-fiction feature The Last Summer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Marc Sempere-Moya, who cut his teeth in the theatre world as well as having directed El ball del vetlatori.

This writer still remembers how, a few months ago, he received a peculiar and most unusual call, inviting him to join various other people and take part in the shoot for a scene in a film that was being made about Niño de Elche, an artist who burst onto the Spanish music scene a few years ago when he performed flamenco beginning from a classical standpoint but embracing more modern aspects, and who has received lashings of praise from various media. The scene in question was to take place in an industrial unit in Madrid, and in it would appear a motley crew of men and women who would be… completely naked. Out of shyness, a lack of availability or possibly cowardice, this journalist politely declined the invitation, but was able to enjoy said cinematic moment when he watched the movie under discussion here, in which religion and piety are seamlessly blended with beauty and lyricism.

The scene described above symbolises perfectly how a personality is constructed: it is built upon the influence of other bodies. And so, among the guests (this time fully dressed) invited to talk about Niño de Elche in Cosmic Chant are figures of the calibre of C Tangana (whom we will soon see at the Berlinale, playing a minor role in the new film by Isaki Lacuesta, One Year, One Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isaki Lacuesta
film profile]), peerless actress, director and provocative performer Angélica Liddell (whose very visually appealing examples of staging have a certain influence on this very film), and flamenco dancer Israel Galván, among countless others.

These people, together with Paco’s family (in particular Paqui, that type of thoroughly Spanish mother that Almodóvar has turned into a universal icon), gradually shed light on the hidden recesses, nuances and peculiarities of Niño de Elche’s character and his professional life. He’s a man who already began to stand out as a child on account of his talent (as the home videos will attest), and who here is revealed as a complex and extremely sensitive individual, who devotes himself body and soul to the cause of his directors.

Because even if the audience members are not flamenco fans or haven’t purchased the albums by the protagonist of this film, the spectacle it offers goes way beyond its central figure, establishing itself as a cinematic entity of commendable beauty and depth, without trying to hide the intense fascination that its helmers feel for the unparalleled Niño de Elche.

Cosmic Chant. Niño de Elche was produced by Señor y Señora and Código Sur, with funding from the ICAA and the Basque Government, and with the involvement of Canal Sur.

(Translated from Spanish)