«El Pechuga» El último trashumante de Ventrosa
2023 · 3m · España
Directed by Álvaro Sáinz
Genres: biography, documentary
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
In little more than three minutes, this projection reflects the frustrated and also fulfilled dreams of 'El Pechuga', the last transhumant of Ventrosa, a neighbour who observes his past with nostalgia and remembers how free he felt when he was a shepherd.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects the elegiac shepherd doc, right? Sáinz seems to know that—and he leans into it so deliberately you can't tell if he's honoring the form or quietly mocking it, which is exactly the kind of tonal ambiguity most scouts would nervously avoid.
Three minutes of restraint and formal clarity: the film knows its lineage (Spanish rural portraiture, the ethnographic eye, nostalgia as a legitimate subject) and refuses to sentimentalize it, which takes real discipline and a curator's understanding of what tradition demands.
The decision to hold on El Pechuga's face while he speaks—no cutaways, no landscape porn—transforms what could've been a tourist's memory into something achingly intimate; that single compositional choice makes the entire melancholy land.