Latido handles sales of “Freedom To Dreams” by Arantxa Aguirre.

Spanish company Latido Films has secured the international sales rights to the documentary “Freedom To Dreams” about Spain’s greatest modern sculptor, Eduardo Chillida. Directed by Arrantxa Aguirre, one of Spain’s greatest documentary filmmakers, the film will have its world premiere in San Sebastian on Sunday.

Filmed over the seasons at Chillida-Leku, the Chillida farmhouse now a museum, it follows Goya Award-winning Basque actress Jone Laspuir (“Ann Is Missing”) as she reflects and talks to many people who knew and were inspired by the artist.

Before becoming a genius sculptor, Chillida was an elite athlete, goalkeeper for Real Sociedad. It is a role that depends on the position and the sense of space. It is also the position most used to wait and observe. Chillida has dedicated his life to committing himself to everything that it means to fill and commune with space and to sit with the time it took to create his works. Aguirre, is aware of the time that the public dedicates to his films. “They lend me the most precious thing they have, their time, and I have to fill that time with emotion and meaning so that they lend it to me again in the next film. I hope they decide to go to the cinema to see ‘Freedom to Dreams’. Once there, I take care of my part of the pact,” she said. Variety.

Sculptures are a gift to the filmmaker, who can often frame them statically with just the sound of the nature where they are located. Where language cannot go, arts like sculpture and music can, as for some, express themselves. They touch the soul by reminding you that it is there and that others have one, something that our daily lives can so often neglect to reveal.

Variety interviewed the director before the film’s release:

You explore Chillida’s legacy through those who knew him, with actress Jone Laspiur as your guide. What inspired you to take this approach and how did it shape the film?

Eduardo Chillida is an artist from the past, but not from a very distant past. There are still many people who knew him, that is, we still have access to primary sources and I wanted to take advantage of that. Jone’s presence has two reasons. On the one hand, I wanted to encourage conversation, which is, I think, a very rich thing. Instead of interviews with the camera, conversations between human beings who have a certain feeling or alchemy between them. On the other hand, the figure of Jone connects all these testimonies and gives them continuity and meaning. All this, the walks that the characters take while they talk in the garden, makes the film take the form not of a road movie but of a film of reflection. path moviemore in tune with the calm rhythm of this absent protagonist that everyone is talking about.

Chillida’s sculptures are visually stunning, especially in their natural setting at Chillida Leku. You chose to photograph them in different seasons and often frame the images in a static manner. What guided these stylistic choices in capturing his work?

Movement is at the heart of cinema and I am always looking for it. But I am usually more excited to find it in the shot than to create it by moving the camera. In this case, the fact that the sculptures are outdoors in a garden means that they also function as screens reflecting the movement of tree leaves, insects or raindrops sliding on their surface. If you pay attention, a real ballet unfolds before your eyes, where nature and art interact.

Chillida was very disciplined in his creative process, following his own strict rules, as revealed in the film. Do you follow similar rules or restrictions in your filmmaking to guide your creative vision?

I don’t think so. When you make documentaries, you have to be very open-minded because you work in real scenarios and with real people who haven’t learned a script. You never know what’s going to happen, what they’re going to say or how they’re going to react. You have to be vigilant, ready to change plans quickly. You never know how or when the right moment is going to come.

Chillida’s career as a Real Sociedad goalkeeper is a rare example of the encounter between sport and art. Do you think his athletic skills, especially his understanding of time and space, may have influenced his sculptural work?

There is no doubt about it. First, because everything we do in depth ends up serving us for the future. Second, because sculpture in particular is a very physical art, which requires strength, dexterity, endurance and coordination between the hands and the mind. Chillida’s experience as a goalkeeper gave him a great advantage in this sense. He had also stressed that the goalkeeper has the duty of protecting the three-dimensional space of the goal and that this is closely linked to his work as a sculptor.

In today’s fast-paced world, most of us struggle with time, while Chillida embraced slowness to discover what matters. What did you learn about time in making this film, and is there anything we can all take away from Chillida’s approach?

I believe that Chillida has a revolutionary way of relating to time. Today we are beginning to hear voices that praise slowness. In this sense, Chillida was ahead of his time and we can learn from him. Personally, I identify with the serene rhythm that emanates from his writings and works and I hope that the viewer of the film also succumbs to the charm of slowness, not only to be able to enjoy this film, but to be able to enjoy life in another way, in my opinion more fulfilling.

In an increasingly homogenous world, Chillida’s art seems inseparable from the Basque Country. How important is it to celebrate local culture in this way, especially in today’s globalized context?

In Greek mythology there was a giant, Antaeus, who lost his strength every time he was pushed out of the ground. I think we have to be very aware of our origins, otherwise we will weaken ourselves irremediably. Chillida used the image of the tree “with its roots in the earth and its arms open to the world” to talk about a cosmopolitan who does not deny his origins but knows how to value them, an intelligent cosmopolitan.