ARIEL
by Lois Patiño​

108min | Spain/Portugal | 2025

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.​
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​Year of production 2025
Length 108'
Countries Spain, Portugal
Shooting Format 16mm
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Dialogue Spanish, Portuguese, Galician
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Director Lois Patiño
Production Companies Filmika Galaika S.L., Bando à Parte
Producers Beli Martínez, Rodrigo Areias
Executive Producers Beli Martínez, Roi Carballido, Rodrigo Areias
Script Lois Patiño
​Cinematographer Ion de Sosa
Sound Design Xabier Erkizia
Editor Lois Patiño
Production Design Cora Patiño
Cast Agustina Muñoz, Irene Escolar, José Díaz, Hugo Torres, Marta Pazos

Festival selections
International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2025, Netherlands - World Premiere
​Festival Internacional De Cine De Cartagena De Indias 2025, Colombia
​BAFICI - Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente 2025, Argentina
International Film Festival of Uruguay 2025
​JEONJU International Film Festival 2025, South Korea
​Bellaria Film Festival 2025, Italy
​​IndieLisboa International Film Festival 2025, Portugal -Honda Silvestre Award for Best Feature Film
​Olhar de Cinema – Curitiba International Film Festival 2025, Brazil - Special Jury Prize
Shanghai International Film Festival 2025, China
Curtocircuíto 2025, Spain
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2025, Czech Republic 
​New Horizons International Film Festival 2025, Poland
​SANFIC - Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine 2025, Chile
​Film Fest Gent 2025, Belgium
BFI London Film Festival 2025, UK
​Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma 2025, Canada
​Refocus Film Festival 2025, USA
Lima Alterna Festival Internacional de Cine 2025, Peru
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2025, Greece
​Mostra de València 2025, Spain
​​Gijon International Film Festival 2025, Spain
​Cormorán Film Fest 2025, Spain
​International Film Festival of India, Goa 2025
​Festival Márgenes 2025, Spain
Festival Internacional de Cine de Viña del Mar 2025, Chile
Fajr International Film Festival 2025, Iran
​Hainan Island International Film Festival 2025, China
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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

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