Having been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), David Riaño decides to travel around Europe in a van: this feat is captured in 7 Lives, 7 Lakes [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], a film directed by Víctor Escribano and produced by José Luis López Linares (Bosch. The Garden of Dreams [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film]). It’s a film about (in)accessible places and the desire to live life, and it recently took part in the Documentary section of the 24^th edition of the Málaga Film Festival. As Riaño states: “I want to encourage anyone and everyone never to give up on their dreams, and to come out of their houses and confront their fears head-on. And I want to make people see that although we are different, we want the same things, and we can progress towards a more just and inclusive society.”

And so, over the course of six months, the protagonist – together with two people who were assisting him – travelled from Finland to Albania, taking in Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, visiting dozens of institutions (embassies, associations for disabled people, hospitals and so on) and swimming in over 40 lakes.

Its director, Víctor Escribano, a graduate in Computer Systems Engineering, has taken part in film directing workshops in Los Angeles and New York. In 2013, he moved to London and worked as an editor and assistant editor: at that point, he worked on a dozen or so features, such as Under the Shadow and 47 Meters Down. He returned to Spain three years later and began to direct his own works, one of the most high-profile of which was the short film Blind Horizon, on Paralympic medal winner Enhamed Enhamed and his successful attempt to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar.

“We gave David two small, wide-angle cameras, and in addition, I spent four weeks in the van, to film the journey and get to know him. The result was better than we could ever have imagined: in his determination to give a voice to disabled people while swimming in any even remotely accessible lake, and in his eagerness to record it all, he achieved a unique mix of intimate portrait, demand for social recognition and adventure,” asserts the director.

7 Lives, 7 Lakes is a López-Li Films production. Its international sales are overseen by Latido Films and its Spanish distribution by Versión Digital.

Watch our exclusive trailer below: