Alicante, 26 May 2025 — At the Teatro Principal on the closing night of the 22nd Alicante International Film Festival, cinematographer Michele Paradisi CCS secured the Tesela de Plata for Best Cinematography for his work on the feature film Lo que queda de ti, the debut of Spanish director Gala Gracia. The drama, which also claimed the Tesela de Oro for Best Film along with several other honours, emerged as the most garlanded picture of the festival; with this award the Alicante showcase once again underlines its commitment to auteur cinema.
Suspended between a promising future in New York and a past that can no longer support her, jazz pianist Sara (Laia Manzanares) returns to the Aragonese Pyrenees after her father’s death. Far from the clamour, the farm she inherits with her sister Elena becomes the stage for an unnamed guilt that permeates everything. Small, daily actions – feeding the sheep, preparing the fodder, cleaning the pen – replace all conversation. Everything seems to call for a silent act of atonement.
THE CRITICS’ VERDICT:
‘Michele Paradisi’s camera lingers patiently on the repetitive movements of country life, on the land’s damp tones, on the heavy sky looming over the mountains. The cinematography shuns any hint of preciosity, embracing instead a rough-hewn aesthetic. Every scene feels steeped in an atmosphere that never breaks but slowly accumulates in layers. The earth does not sparkle; it breathes.’ (www.mindies.es)
‘A hush envelops the landscape, which Lo que queda de ti turns into a character in its own right. Through Michele Paradisi’s cinematography, the Pyrenean countryside is depicted with a wistful beauty, like a paradisiacal refuge that nonetheless demands sacrifice and dedication. The film does not idealise rural life, nor does it present it as a barren inheritance to be forsaken; rather, it lays bare the complexities of the choice to remain: the physical exertion of so arduous a way of living, the solitude of a boundless landscape, and the deep resilience required to face it.’ (https://mundocine.es/)
