Retaguardia, the latest work by the renowned Asturian filmmaker Ramón Lluís Bande, will have its international premiere at FICMonterrey this Friday and will premiere in Spain in the Albar Official Section of FICX. After winning the Special Jury Prize in 2018 with Cantares de una revolución, Ramón Lluís Bande competes on this occasion alongside filmmakers such as the previously announced Bruno Dumont, Claire Simon and India Donaldson.

With the documentary rigour that characterises its author, Retaguardia attempts to reconstruct a collection of films that could have been shot in Asturias during 1937 and imagines a possible propaganda film that, promoted by the institutions and the Asturian Republican political and trade union organisations, could have been developed by the journalistic team of the socialist newspaper Avance. On this occasion, the Asturian filmmaker and essayist uses the series of photographs by Constantino Suárez and texts by Ovidio Gondi, Juan Antonio Cabezas and Juan Manuel Vega Pico.

_{Retaguardia de Ramón Lluís Bande}

The Festival’s FICX Premiere section will also include the Spanish premiere of Monstruo de Xibalba. The directorial debut of Mexican filmmaker Manuela Irene, which had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and will also be screened at the Mexican event FICMonterrey, manages to combine adventure and existential reflections while delving into the mystery of the Mayan legend in the jungles of Yucatán and accompanying a boy obsessed with death.

_{Monstruo de Xibalba by Manuela Irene}