Filmoteca Canaria will commemorate the centenary of the birth of José Saramago - which will be on November 16 - with a film series that will include several film adaptations of the most iconic works of the Portuguese writer, who established his last residence on the island of Lanzarote.
In this way, "Saramago on the screen" will bring four titles to the Municipal Theater of Tías next October: 'José and Pilar', 'Enemy', 'Blindness' and 'The Stone Raft'.
The organizing entity has defined the author as "one of the few writers of whom it can be said that each of his fictions is incomparable to the previous one".
"Saramago was an author aware that each story has an ideal and intrinsic way of being told, also on the big screen, and therefore we want to bring to the public some of the great films that he inspired", detailed the Filmoteca.
Screenings
The series will begin next Monday, October 3, with the screening of 'José and Pilar', a documentary film that portrays the relationship between this Nobel Prize winner and the journalist Pilar del Río.
The work includes a sample of the couple in their day to day in Lanzarote and Lisbon, in their home and in their business trips around the world, portraying the author in his creative process and in his relationship, committed to changing the world, or at least, to making it better.
The film "reveals an unknown Saramago, undoes preconceived ideas and also proves that genius and simplicity are compatible", say from the Filmoteca.
The next screening will be 'Blindness', a 2008 film inspired by Saramago's book 'Essay on Blindness', which can be seen on Tuesday the 4th.
The film, signed by the Brazilian Fernando Meirelles, tells the story of a country that is suddenly devastated by an unknown epidemic, where those affected by the disease lose their sight and are isolated in hospitals by the Government, without receiving explanations.
The activity will continue with the film 'Enemy' (2013), inspired by the novel 'The Double Man', scheduled for Wednesday the 5th; and will come to an end with the Spanish production 'The Stone Raft' (2002), which adapts his novel of the same title and can be viewed on Thursday the 6th.
'Enemy' tells the story of Adam, a university professor who watches how his life takes a radical turn when he sees on television an actor identical to him, a fact that will lead the protagonist to want to find him.
For its part, in 'The Stone Raft', a cataclysm inexplicable to science separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of the European continent, so Spain and Portugal become a stone raft that wanders aimlessly through the ocean. Chaos breaks out when the United States begins to plan to take control of that land adrift.
The activity has been organized in collaboration with the Cabildo de Lanzarote, the José Saramago Foundation, the Tías City Council and the Canary Institute of Cultural Development (ICDC). Access to all sessions will be free, with all of them starting at 5:30 p.m.