The Argentine documentary film Splinters /Esquirlas, the debut feature by director Natalia Garayalde, was announced winner of the Grand Prize for Best Film at the 22nd edition of the Jeonju Film Festival in Korea, with a cash prize of approximately $18,000 USD. The film was screened in the international competition category, focused on new and emerging directors from around the world.
On November 3rd, 1995, the Río Tercero Military Factory in Córdoba exploded. This caused thousands of projectiles to go off and disperse over the surrounding towns, in a tragedy that would leave seven casualties and hundreds of wounded and affected people. At that time, director Garayalde was a 12-year-old girl living with her family near the place, and was still playing with the video camera his father had bought for her when she recorded the moments right after the blast, while her family escaped the explosions, as well as the town’s everyday activities in the days and weeks that followed. Twenty-five years later, that footage captured through the candid and amazed point of view of a girl playing with her sister, pretending to be journalists, becomes a thoughtful, painful testimony about a family, the destruction of a city, the traces of horror, the sinister truth about the case and the wounds that are hard to heal.
The Argentine film had its world premiere at the Mar del Plata Film Festival last year, and was recently screened at the Visions du Réel Film Festival in Switzerland, where it won a Special Jury Award.
