Lucrecia Martel was educated at Avellaneda Experimental (AVEX) and the National School of Cinematographic Experimentation and Direction (ENERC) in Buenos Aires. She introduced her uncompromising vision to the world with her debut feature The Swamp which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001. Her next feature film The Holy Girl was selected for Cannes Competition in 2004. Both films already bore the hallmark of an auteur who refuses to shy away from bold themes. She plunges her audience into a child’s perception of the world, where time and space are elastic and borderless, and she fearlessly explores adolescent sexuality, group dynamics and class differences.
The Headless Woman (Cannes Competition 2008) consolidated her thematic fascinations, this time from the perspective of a woman in crisis. Her most recent film Zama, which premiered at Venice in 2017, takes Martel and her audiences into virgin territory. A cutting-edge, dystopian period film that turns the genre on its head, Zama sees Martel take on a male protagonist, while continuing to expose the games played by clashing social and racial tribes.
A Martel trademark is her uncanny take on temporality and space. Her sense of cinematic rhythm is revolutionary in how closely it mirrors the logic of the senses. Although her craft is marked with a style that is distinctively hers, with every new film Martel proves that it is ever-evolving and increasingly ambitious. In her masterclass, Martel will dissect the techniques she uses to bend time and space in cinema.
Moderated by film producer and former IFFR director Simon Field.
