Itineraries | 2026
Films in the Itineraries Section:
Introducing the Itineraries Section
If there is one venue for the Cines del Sur Festival capable of encapsulating the shared pulse between Granada and the world's cinemas, it is Plaza de las Pasiegas. Open-air, under the serene gaze of the Cathedral, this space has, over the years, become a screen where borders dissolve and stories travel like warm currents of air between continents. It has echoed with the vibrant Bollywood dances of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, showcased the animated universes of essential authors like Makoto Shinkai with Your Name, and moved audiences with intimate and delicate stories like Naoko Ogigami's Close-Knit, which brings LGBTQI+ realities closer to the public with tenderness and humanity.
With the Festival's return to Granada, the return to Pasiegas was inevitable. Because this square is not just a venue: it is a meeting place, a shared memory of summer nights, cinema, and discovery. A corner where generations of Granadans —and visitors from other lands— have learned to see the world through films that, beyond their entertainment value, illuminate the tensions, dreams, and contradictions of the societies they represent.
This year's selection brings together four titles as distinct from each other as they are representative of the cultural and narrative diversity of the global South.
The first stop on this cinematic journey will be Xana and the Mystery of Time, an ambitious Chinese animation production that confirms the extraordinary creative moment the country's animation cinema is experiencing. After the international phenomenon of Nezha 2, which grossed over 2 billion dollars, Chinese productions have demonstrated not only dazzling technical capability but also a growing ability to construct universal narratives. In this instance, the mystery begins when Xana, an apparently ordinary young woman, finds a time machine that piques the interest of a powerful organization. From that moment on, the journey becomes a race for survival within a hostile world where past and future collide like tectonic plates.
The second screening comes from Argentina, courtesy of actress and director Dolores Fonzi, whose film Belén has become a phenomenon with both audiences and social debate. Based on real events, the film reconstructs the case of a young woman from Tucumán accused of illegal abortion and the wave of indignation and mobilization that shook the country in 2011. Beyond the legal drama, Belén portrays the birth of a collective movement in defense of reproductive rights. The story of one woman thus transforms into the voice of thousands; a spark that crosses borders and turns an individual struggle into a symbol of shared resistance.
Thanks to the collaboration of the Japan Foundation, the festival also brings back the vision of veteran director Ryuichi Hiroki, an essential figure in contemporary Japanese cinema. In The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, Hiroki offers a story where the everyday and the extraordinary intertwine with the delicacy of a handwritten letter. Three childhood friends, after committing a robbery, take refuge in an abandoned shop for the night. However, chance —or perhaps something deeper— intervenes when they discover a newly arrived letter from the past: a message written thirty-two years ago. From there, the film unfolds a story of redemption and second chances where time seems to fold back on itself, as if lives could reconnect through words.
Closing this reunion with cinema nights in Pasiegas is the Indian production Raid 2, directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, a filmmaker already known to the Cines del Sur Festival audience after presenting the powerful No One Killed Jessica in 2011. Gupta now returns with a major Bollywood production that combines all the genre's ingredients: action, spectacle, and energetic musical numbers. But beneath this visual display also beats a critical look at one of the most persistent ills of any society: the corruption of the powerful. A denunciation that runs through the film from its very first frame and reminds us that, even amidst the spectacle, cinema remains a tool for questioning reality.
