{"id":41630,"date":"2018-02-13T00:03:22","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T08:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=41630"},"modified":"2018-02-22T10:40:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T18:40:20","slug":"giant-aitor-arregui-jon-garrano-2017-spain-basque-title-handia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=41630","title":{"rendered":"Giant (Aitor Arregui, Jon Garrano, 2017): Spain. Basque title: Handia."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Reviewed by Diana Diaz.\u00a0 Viewed at the Metro 4 Theater, Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

The Basque country of Spain\u2019s nascent film industry is really cooking along. Handia<\/em> or Giant<\/em> swept 10 Goya Awards in Spain, bringing it to international attention.\u00a0 The writer\/director team of Aitor Arregui and Jon Garrano also won national attention in Spain for their prior film Flowers<\/em> (2014), (Basque title: Loreak<\/em>). Giant<\/em> relates real events from the life of the then world\u2019s tallest man, the Giant of Altzo who was around 8 feet tall at his death. But really, it\u2019s about the love between two brothers, complicated family relationships, and poor country people experiencing the modern world.<\/p>\n

The father chooses one of his sons to go off to war. When Joaquin returns home, he finds his brother Miguel has grown taller both physically and metaphorically while Joaquin struggles to fit in back home after his service. Having been exposed to it, he embraces a broader and more modern world view by learning to speak Spanish and adopting modern dress of the time.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Miguel\u2019s out-of-control physical growth leaves him grasping at anything Miguel can control to stay the same.\u00a0 Miguel is hard-pressed to fit in the modern world, insistent on speaking only Basque and dressing like he does at home.\u00a0 Costuming is a key component of the story.\u00a0 The world outside the Basque country can be quite unforgiving.\u00a0 The brothers love and depend on each other, but also keep secrets from each other and are deeply jealous of each other. And a 3rd brother muddies the waters further.<\/p>\n

Set in the early 1800s, events unfold amid a backdrop of an idyllic, small mountain villa of the Basque country, deftly captured by cinematographer Javier Aguirre and wonderfully edited.\u00a0 Dreamlike recurring imagery and motifs, as well and skillful lighting contribute a great deal to telling the tale. There are quite a few staging tricks, forced perspective, and digital effects involved in making Miguel bigger than everyone else.<\/p>\n

Throughout the portrayal of real events, the story retains an aura of legend and magical realism which makes one wonder which things were true. Some of the most fantastic-seeming parts of the film are actually true, according to the filmmaker. But, since little is actually known, the many liberties of the story make for a drama as eternal as that of Cain and Abel.<\/p>\n

Handia<\/em> seems allegorical of the inner struggle facing all Basque people with respect to the broader world.\u00a0 It’s well worth seeing.\u00a0 It will also represent Spain for the Ariel Awards, Mexico’s equivalent to the Oscars, in the upcoming awards season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Diana Diaz.\u00a0 Viewed at the Metro 4 Theater, Santa Barbara. The Basque country of Spain\u2019s nascent film industry is really cooking along. Handia or Giant swept 10 Goya Awards in Spain, bringing it to international attention.\u00a0 The writer\/director team of Aitor Arregui and Jon Garrano also won national attention in Spain for their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,322],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-41630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2018","tag-biopic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/180314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}