The grandma and the Stranger<\/em>; 2024\/Aire de Cinema, Alhena Production\/Spain\/116′) was recognized with four awards at the 21st edition of the Festival Alicante International Film Festival, where director Sergi Miralles’ debut film premiered last Thursday, May 23.<\/p>\n\nThe festival’s awards, which were announced at the closing gala on Saturday, May 25, include the Tesela de Oro for Best Film; the Silver Tesela for Best Actress for Neus Agull\u00f3; the Silver Tesela for Best Actor for Kandarp Mehta and the ‘Sergio Balseyro’ Critics’ Award. So Miralles’ film has been described as \u201cthe great winner\u201d of this 21st edition of the festival.<\/p>\n\n
This comedy-drama is a very emotional film that tells the story of Teresa, a dressmaker who meets Samir, the fruit seller, who is actually a great tailor who had to emigrate from Pakistan. Enric, in the midst of a life crisis, returns to the town to attend his grandmother’s funeral and discovers the relationship she had with Samir. In this story, A\u00efda Ballmann plays Julia, Enric’s wife. Since Julia has not been able to travel to accompany him, they keep in touch virtually. Her intention to support him is hindered by Enric’s crisis, situation that tests their relationship.<\/p>\n\n
Ballmann was present at the premiere of the film in Alicante, an occasion that allowed her to once again share the viewing of a film in a movie theater: \u201cThe fact of having gone to the premiere and hearing the audience behind me laugh and get excited, having this shared experience with them and immersing ourselves in that story together has generated a sense of belonging and community in me.\u201d The Canarian actress of German origin highlights that \u201cafter Covid, returning to theaters has not been fully reactivated. We have become accustomed to approaching cinema through platforms, which also have their pros, but I think it is much more interesting to experience the film in the theater, because it is more powerful to experience the catharsis of art if the audience experiences it in community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Ballmann is part of a cast headed by Carles Francino, Neus Agull\u00f3 and Kandarp Mehta, in the leading roles, along with Mar\u00eda Maroto, Empar Ferrer, Manuel Canchal, Amparo Oltra, Isabel Rocatti, Rosanna Esp\u00eddos, Estela Mart\u00ednez and Jordi Ballester, among others. Shot in June and July 2023 in Algar de Pal\u00e0ncia (Valencia), the film featured V\u00edctor Entrecanales in photography. The production has the participation of \u00c0 Punt, 3 Cat and Radio Televisi\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola (RTVE). The script for L’<\/em>\u00e0via y el foraster<\/em> is by Mila Luengo, Mar\u00eda M\u00ednguez and Sergi Miralles.<\/p>\n\n
A\u00efda Ballmann<\/strong><\/p>\n\nA\u00efda Ballmann could recently be seen in the series Operaci\u00f3n Barrio Ingl\u00e9s<\/em>, on La 1, season now available on Rtveplay. In this period series about the network of spies in Huelva in the Second World War, she plays Miss Eva, an English double agent, but a Nazi. About this experience she has commented that \u201cthis character allowed me to be mysterious and ambiguous, to reveal, but not completely, to always leave a question in the air and, above all, not to discover what I may be feeling or thinking… When Miss Eva appeared, the plot took a new direction and I liked that because, although I had few appearances, they were definitive for the direction of the story.”<\/p>\n\nBallmann trained as a text actress in Gij\u00f3n, Seville, Barcelona, \u200b\u200bMadrid and Germany with Stanislavski and Meisner techniques. She worked for several years as a specialist and theater actress, before turning to the seventh art. She debuted as the protagonist in the film shot in English The extraordinary tale<\/em>, by Laura Alvea and Jos\u00e9 Ortu\u00f1o. Spanish and international feature films followed, including: La velocidad de nuestros pensamientos<\/em>, from Nacho Chueca; Die Insel<\/em>, from Lars Ostmann; El gigante y la sirena<\/em>, from Roberto Chinet; Atl\u00e1nticas<\/em>, from Guillermo Garc\u00eda L\u00f3pez, Los europeos<\/em>, from V\u00edctor Garc\u00eda Le\u00f3n; Gleich<\/em>, from Jennifer Casta\u00f1eda; La metamorfosis <\/em>de Narciso,<\/em> from Hamed Alizadeh, in addition to this latest film directed by Sergi Miralles presented in Alicante.<\/p>\n\nShe has also participated in successful series. Apart from Operaci\u00f3n Barrio Ingl\u00e9s<\/em>, stand out Una vida menos en Canarias<\/em>, Endlich Witwer<\/em>, Crossfire<\/em>, Lo que escond\u00edan sus ojos<\/em>, El tiempo entre costuras<\/em>, \u00c1guila roja<\/em>, Brigada de fen\u00f3menos<\/em> and Malviviendo<\/em>. For her acting work, she has received four awards as best actress in Film Bizarro (2013), Cardiff International Film Festival (2014), Festivalito (2015) and Leoncio Morales (2017); She also has several nominations, including from the Association of Film Writers of Andalusia (ASECAN, 2014) and the Vienna International Film Awards (VIFA, 2022), as well as excellent reviews in magazines such as Hollywood Reporter<\/em>.<\/p>\n\nRecently, besides from having returned to the stage with Recetas para el alma, by La carboner\u00eda de la Lola<\/em>, she has expanded her experience as a director with her debut feature, the documentary Sand Path<\/em>, which has visited more than 40 festivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00efda Ballmann: \u201cFor me it is magic to materialize an intellectual concept into a film, with the contribution of a team that rows in the same direction\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[929,921,939,927,923,945],"tags":[1299,1309,851,1348,1347,1349,1298,1350,1351,1300,1216,1217],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13793,"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13792\/revisions\/13793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidaballmann.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}