L’illa de l’holandès. 2001.

Director: Sigfrid Monleón
Duration: 105 minutos
Genre: Drama

Synopsis: Lluís Dalmau, a young professor, has been deported for his political activities and arrives at an island. It is 1969 and the people on the topic of discussion on the island is whether to construct a holiday resort with foreign capital or to find other ways to prevent the closure of the traditional salt industry that sustained the economy of the island for centuriesl. Dalmau, seduced by the island and its people, decides to postpone his escape plans and initiates an affair with Feli, an attractive farmer. This makes Feli reconsider her relationship with Patrice the Belgian, a foreigner with a dark past who runs the hostel on the island. Precisely from his dark past will emerge the solution for the islanders to settle their debts and freely choose their future. But maybe it's too late for Patrice to keep Feli at his side.

Commentary

Set in a Spanish island in the late sixties, many of the exteriors of this film were shot in Ibiza and Formentera. According to Monleón statements, ‘L’illa de l’holandès’ is “a very intimate adventure film in which a romantic love triangle story is depicted with beautiful scenearies that outstand, the characters are an extension of the landscape, which itself is an addition of them.” There appear images of the island of Ses Salines, Es Codolar, Cala en Baster, Cap de Barbaria, Punta de Sa Pedrera and Cala Embaster. Some inland footage was also filmed on the islands, like an old bar of Sa Canal which was transformed into the headquarters of the Civil Guard that appears in the film. Filming began in Ibiza in 2000, June 5, and three weeks later the team moved to Valencia and Barcelona to film the rest of the footage.

‘L’illa del holandès’ competed in the Spanish Film Festival of Malaga in 2001, winning the award for best soundtrack. The film had a good critical reception. Lluís Bonet Mojica said to newspaper La Vanguardia: “Sigfrid Monleón has achieved a credible movie, not linear, exciting in the main act and filmed with great talent. Dialogues and actors project an unusual truth in our cinema.” Besides being nominated for his screenplay for the Goya Awards, ‘L’illa del holandès’ won three awards at the contest Spring Film Lorca which also involved two other productions filmed in Ibiza in the 2002 edition: ‘Any’ (2001) by David Marquis, and ‘El sueño de Ibiza’ (2002), Igor Fioravanti.

Commentary written by Enrique Villalonga, head of the audiovisual production Filmótica.

References

TECHNICAL DETAILS
Producer Nisa Producciones and Oberon Cinematogràfica (Spain)
Director Sigfrid Monleón
Script Sigfrid Monleón, Ferran Torrent, Teresa de Pelegrí, Dominic Harari
Photography Andreu Rebés
Art Direction Rafael Jannone
Edition Joaquín Ojeda
Music Pascal Comelade, José Manuel Pagán
Sound designer Daniel Fontrodona, Pablo Sanz
Casting Pere Ponce, Cristina Plazas, Féodor Atkine, Juli Mira, Roger Casamajor, Francesc Garrido, Dafnis Balduz, Emma Vilarasau, Michel Cordes, Víctor Pi, Juli Cantó, Elvira Granados, Enric Benavent, Chantal Aimée, Ximo Solano, Rocío Marco, Merche Chapí, Ernesto Pastor, Manuel Dols, Martín Cases, Nicole Pardo, Antonio García Vega, Antonia Juan Ferrer, Felip Ricart, Gerard Clostermann, Jorge Fuster, Paco Sarro

L’illa de l’holandès. 2001.

Commentary

References

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TECHNICAL DETAILS

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