Ariel is a play-within-a-play on film, about an Argentine actress who sets ashore a strange and enchanting island where its inhabitants have transcended into Shakespearian characters. Lois Patiño adorns his latest feature with sparkling waterscapes and enchanting terrains that are seemingly possessed by otherworldly energies. Year of production 2025 Length 108' CountriesSpain, Portugal Shooting Format 16mm Aspect Ratio16:9 Dialogue Spanish, Portuguese, Galician Director Lois Patiño Production CompaniesFilmika Galaika S.L., Bando à Parte Producers Beli Martínez, Rodrigo Areias Executive ProducersBeli Martínez, Roi Carballido, Rodrigo Areias Script Lois Patiño CinematographerIon de Sosa Sound DesignXabier Erkizia EditorLois Patiño Production DesignCora Patiño Cast Agustina Muñoz, Irene Escolar, José Díaz, Hugo Torres, Marta Pazos
Festival selections International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2025, Netherlands - World Premiere Director's Statement The project arose - together with Matías Piñeiro - from the desire to explore Shakespeare's "The Tempest" from the perspective of the character of Ariel - the spirit of the air- But little by little it opened up to the rest of the author's work, to reflect on how and from where, the poetry, humanity and deepness of Shakespeare's texts can challenge us today. 'The Tempest' is the author's last work and in it there is a monologue that has been interpreted as Shakespeare's farewell to his audience: a game between person and character that we explore in the film. It is also the work where there is a greater presence of nature, and this relationship between word and landscape is another seed from which the project is born. Ariel's goal is to achieve her freedom, and there are many reflections around this concept in the play -also from colonialist readings-. We were interested in reflecting on the idea of freedom also from the perspective of the fear of freedom and the invitation to the adventure of living. Our characters, aware of their lack of free will inside the play, and full of existential doubts, will debate this idea. The metanarrative games between reality and fiction weave our story into multiple duplicities. We inhabit an island that becomes a theatre and a limbo, where the characters wander, like ghosts, trapped inside the work, in a suspended time, where not even death can get them out of there.
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. Shakespeare
