Directed by
FERNANDO PENCO VALENZUELA
Country of Origin
Spain
Runtime
52:00
Category
“How can we not think that life ends with death,?” the narrator asks himself at the end of the documentary. Monte Horquera is a double plane loop, dreamlike and real, in which the viewer is immersed and in which the past and the present inevitably intermingle. 200 years of the life of a village, Nueva Carteya, in the province of Cordova, Andalusia, whose origins lie in the seven hills of Monte Horquera and its first inhabitants who populated them in order to exploit them: to clear the mountain of undergrowth in order to cultivate it and obtain resources from it!
But the history of Nueva Carteya, the village that gave its name to one of the seven hills, is lost in the darkness of times and in it converge stories of life and circumstances that speak of emigration and departures without return; of archaeology and the environment; of cultural anthropology; of beliefs and traditions. Made partly with archive materials, Monte Horquera tries to highlight images and memories of the old Carteya, through its own original language.
Director Biography – FERNANDO PENCO VALENZUELA
Archaeologist, academic and writer, in 2017 he received the Juan Bernier Archaeology Prize for his research work and his papers on historical and archeological heritage, which have been published in national and international journals.
He is the author of books such as Guadalquivir, un valle legendario (Almuzara, 2008), Viaje a Tartessos (Almuzara, 2013) and Mediterráneo (Cántico, 2019). Throughout 2005 and 2006 he lives between Cordoba and Rabat, where he directs and coordinates the Museum Project for the National Museum of the Jewel of the Alaouite kingdom. He was awarded a special mention and congratulations on the achievement of the Historical Site of Cerro Muriano Mining Reserve, where he currently directs the Copper Museum of that town. The aforementioned recognitions were given by the SEDPGYM (Spanish Society for the Defence of Geological and Mining Heritage), at the General Assembly held at the 10th International Congress on Geological and Mining Heritage.
In 1999 he won the Nueva Gente National Prize for Narrative, awarded by the Asociación de Escritores y Artistas Españoles (Association of Spanish Writers and Artists), in recognition of the quality and effort of his first and only fiction book El cráneo, y siete breves narraciones (Morandi ed., 1998). It was in 2002 when he wrote the script and directed the documentary La muerte, a través del Guadalquivir, which was presented at the Filmoteca de Andalucía (Film Archive of Andalusia) in 2003 and was selected for the 6th edition of the Festival del Ríu of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2005).
Years later, in May 2009, he discovers, together with the photographer Juan Obrero, the exact place where Robert Capa shot Muerte de un miliciano (Death of a militiaman), the result of this intense work is La foto de Capa (Paso de Cebra, 2011). This discovery will be the beginning of a series of academic research and publications that will see the light, among others, at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and will be recognised in newspapers such as The Times and The Telegraph.
Monte Horquera is his second foray into the world of documentary filmmaking, having written the script and directed as well as doing an outstanding production job.
