Carmen Maura will open the 29th Malaga Festival with the anticipated 'Calle Malaga'

Carmen Maura will be the star of the opening of the 29th Malaga Festival. The veteran actress will walk the red carpet on March 6th ... to present ‘Calle Málaga’, a story of love and resistance directed by Maryam Touzani, which was selected by Morocco to represent the neighboring country at the Oscars. It is not the only film the festival has revealed this Monday to compete in its official section, where prodigal son Víctor García León also returns with the comedy ‘Altas Capacidades’; former minister Ángeles González Sinde with ‘Después de Kim; Argentine Benjamín Ávila with ‘La mujer de la fila’ and Peruvian Francisco J. Lombardi who, in addition to receiving the Retrospective award of this edition, aims to conquer the Biznagas of the awards with ‘El corazón del lobo’.

For the opening, the 29th Malaga Festival, which takes place from March 6 to 15, has played it safe with a movie like 'Calle Málaga'. And not just because it carries the denomination of origin in the title and stars Carmen Maura, but because it is endorsed by awards for best feature film at the Mar del Plata Festival and the audience award at the Venice Mostra. However, do not be misled by the title since the film is not set in this land, but as revealed to SUR by its Moroccan director, Maryam Touzani ('El caftán azul'), this story based on her childhood memories refers to the street where her grandmother of Andalusian origin lived in Tangier, in the heart of the Spanish neighborhood of the North African city.

This Hispanic origin characterizes the film as it represents the meeting of the old legacy of the protectorate and the Arab world. An understanding between past and present that is personified by the protagonist of the film, a 79-year-old woman who was born and has spent her entire life in Tangier. Carmen Maura plays the woman in this story, whose life takes a turn when her daughter Clara (Marta Etura) arrives with the intention of taking her mother to Madrid and selling what has been the family home for 40 years.

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"The film is quite personal since my mother lived on that Málaga street with my grandmother, Juana, who was Andalusian and came to live in Tangier as a child," revealed to SUR the director of this film, who faces here a very special project, linked to her own memory. Her ancestor was born in Jimena de la Frontera (Cádiz), which she left after the exile caused by the civil war. Origins she never forgot and which she transmitted to Maryam Touzani, who has turned all that legacy into a film co-produced by Morocco, France, Belgium, Germany, and Spain (Mod Producciones). The film will hit theaters right after the Malaga Festival, on April 1st.