Opening Gala: La bola negra

Amid the chaos of the Spanish Civil War, Sebastián finds himself joining the fascist army and is assigned to look after a mysterious prisoner of war. Years earlier, young Carlos applies for membership in an exclusive club, but suspicions about his sexuality complicate matters. In the present day, a young historian named Alberto finds himself unraveling the tangled web of his family’s hidden past.

R&A’s opening film La bola negra is a breathtakingly romantic queer triptych. This ambitious epic takes its inspiration and title from an unfinished play by the legendary Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.

Spanning three different time periods, the story weaves queer love, historical mystery and the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War into an irresistible whole. The film became one of the major talking points of the Cannes Film Festival, where the directing duo known as Los Javis shared the Best Director award with Paweł Pawlikowski. La bola negra also features a host of familiar faces in supporting roles, from Penélope Cruz to Julio Torres and Glenn Close.

Inari Ylinen

At the Opening Gala before the film, composer Ilari Heinilä will perform dark tunes drawn from the subconscious alongside his beautifully haunting band, The Black Lodge. Together with Jasmine Lefrancois, Helmi Tikkanen and Jussi Koski-Laulaja, they will lead the audience through a performance that is at once meditative and beautiful, yet unsettling, brought to life with synthesizers, samplers, guitars, and dreamy vocals.