Sipo Phantasma, Koldo Almandoz, Spain, 69', VO (Basque) with subtitles in English and Spanish
An hour-long cruise, the meta-filmic essay of a vampire moviemaker, a ghost film. The story of the search for a place gives rise to discoveries that lead to other searches. F.W. Murnau and his movie Nosferatu; the love triangle between Bram Stoker, his wife Florence Balcombe and his boyfriend Oscar Wilde. Famous shipwrecks, holidays on board a ship. The stolen bust from a grave, reflections on history and cinema. A tale of Russian dolls who conceal gothic fiction, documentary realism and video essay. Narrative collage with fragments of books, letters, reports, announcements, telegrams, press cuttings, film extracts, puppets. A mirror game with real and fictional vampires; loneliness, dehumanisation, social control. And in the middle of it all, the novel Dracula; its main character, its structure, its background.
Ghosts inhabit the first feature film by Koldo Almandoz (San Sebastian, 1973). Premiered in Rotterdam,Sipo Phantasma (Ghost Ship) is a tale of shipwrecks, vampires, loves and cinema. Another two Basque productions figure in this section: the Kimuak’s short films Caminan (On The Path), by Mikel Rueda, and Gure hormek / Our Walls by Las chicas de Pasaik (María Elorza and Maider Fernandez Iriarte).
'Sipo Phantasma', first feature film by Koldo Almandoz is a tale of shipwrecks, vampires, loves and cinema.