07/07/2022 - Patricia López Arnaiz, Ane Gabarain and Itziar Lazkano star in this drama about the acceptance of difference by the director of the short film Cuerdas, award winner at the last Cannes festival

After winning the Les Rails d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week with her latest short film Cuerdas, Estibaliz Urresola began shooting 20.000 especies de abejas in Laudio and Hendaye (Basque Country) at the end of June. The director of the award-winning short film Polvo somos, winner of two Silver Biznagas at the Malaga Festival, has now made the leap to feature-length fiction.

The film’s cast includes Patricia López Arnaiz (actress who won the Goya for her work in Ane is Missing [+see also:
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interview: David Pérez Sañudo
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interview: Ibon Cormenzana
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It tells the story of six-year-old Lucía, a girl with a penis whom everyone calls Aitor and who longs for the arrival of summer in order to leave the hostile school environment behind. Ane, her mother, in the midst of a professional and sentimental crisis, will use the holidays to travel with her three children to her parents' house, where her mother and her aunt Lourdes live, who is heavily involved in beekeeping and honey production. This life-changing summer will force these women from three very different generations to be honest with themselves and decide how they want to keep presenting themselves to the world.

Its director says, "I want to transfer the value of diversity to multiple expressions in the film: in the variety of female characters that embody the family hive; in the beliefs that sustain us; in the ways of feeling and loving; in the linguistic richness of our border. In this framework so closely tied to the earth and nature, I want to present transsexuality as another expression of diversity in life. And all this through Lucía and the simple but complex questions she asks herself and which she conveys to the audience."

This project has taken part in different laboratories and international markets including Thessaloniki International Film Festival Crossroads Co-Production Forum, where it won the 2|35 Post-Production Award, in the Industry @ Tallinn & Baltic Event, where it won the Script Pool Film Award, in the Berlinale Co-Production Market and in Les Ateliers, Premiers Plans D’Angers. The script originated in the Artistic Residency A Room of One’s Own, organised by Gariza Films. It was then further developed at Zineuskadi’s Noka and at ECAM’s La Incubadora.

Estibaliz Urresola, 38 years old, holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication (UPV-Bilbao); in Editing and Editing Theory (EICTV Cuba); Master’s in film Directing (ESCAC) and Master’s in Film Business - marketing, distribution and international sales (ESCAC). Since 2011, she has written, directed and produced the feature documentary Voces de papel, which premiered in the Zinemira section of the San Sebastian Festival, as well as many short films, including Adri and Polvo somos. 

20.000 especies de abejas is being produced by Gariza Film and Inicia Films. BTeam Pictures will distribute it in cinemas. And includes the participation of RTVE, EITB, TV3 and Movistar Plus+, with the support of the Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Alava, as well as funding from the ICAA.

(Translated from Spanish)