Documentary

Parrot at the Milkbar

• Director: Inés Thomsen
• 2014 In distribution
• 52/80 min

The infamous El Raval quarter, with its narrow lanes full of dark figures, lies in the middle of Barcelona, in the Old Town, near the water. Where earlier, sailors shared the cheap little flats with working families, migrants from all over the world now characterise the area.

In the small alleys their little barbershops lie side by side. Each nationality has its own. The businesses cater for parallel societies and have little contact with one another. Whoever enters apparently leaves Spain behind to plunge into a safe place of familiar rituals and memories of home. The barbers live from their regular customers and their almost pastoral ability to constantly talk about everything and nothing, or remain silent, whilst they softly touch and courageously beautify the heads and cheeks of the weary and burdened.

The film tells of four hairdressers and their customers in El Raval, four small, strange time and space capsules, of people who left their home to find a better one, while the Spaniards are about to leave their own country themselves.

Key Crew

Director: Inés Thomsen
Executive producters: Carles Brugueras, Thomas Tielsch
Editor: Franziska von Berlepsch
Director of Photography: Inés Thomsen
Sound: Amanda Villavieja

Festivals & Awards

DOCS Barcelona. 27th May – 1st June 2014
Documenta Madrid, Panorama del Documental Español. 30th April – 11th May 2014
Festival ALCANCES (Cádiz, Spain). 6th – 13th September 2014
Hofer Filmtage 2014 (Hof, Germany). 21th – 26th October
Festival Internacional de cine y Derechos Humanos (Valencia, Spain). 24th – 31th October 2014
Best film Filmfest Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). 19th – 22th March 2015
Best Documentary Achtung Berlin – New Berlin Film Award (Germany). 15th – 22th April 2015