The Visit and A Secret Garden

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This award-winning portrait of elderly, forgotten Spanish painter Isabel Santaló astutely reflects on memory, oblivion, and the creative process while posing the question of what it means to be both an artist and a woman.

Santaló, whose abstract work was well-regarded during the 1960s, is also the filmmaker’s aunt. Their strained relationship brings with it an examination of ethical documentary film creation. For all those with a relative who has chosen their own path in life, away from the norm or the expected, The Visit and a Secret Garden offers insight and grace.

Through her niece’s visits and the voice of artist Antonio López (The Quince Tree Sun, Víctor Erice), the only painter who remembers her, we shape a multifaceted portrait film that takes a surprising turn.

"The Visit and A Secret Garden” is without any doubt viscerally mesmerizing (...) just beautiful, a non-fiction film even full of suspense. Among the magnificent squad of Spanish female directors a new star is born: Irene M. Borrego." — Carlos Loureda, FilmAnd

"The quintessential definition of what for decades we have referred to as non-fiction cinema: that is using narrative dispositives of fiction cinema to stories deeply rooted in reality." — Matías G. Rebolledo, La Razón

"A documentary that challenges the expectations of the audience, a film that defies all the norms of biopic films and with a protagonist that has not the slightest intention to be vindicated." — José A. Cano, Cine con Ñ

"The brightest moments of the film come through the interventions of Santaló, whose description of the creative process -based on the search for the accident- creates an emotional turmoil you cannot escape." — Laura Carneros, Otros Cines Europa

"A brutally honest film." — Enric Alberó, El Cultural

"One of the most significant and exciting surprises of Bergamo Film Meeting 2023 is without any doubt the pungent, generous, and hyper-personal film by Irene M. Borrego, “The Visit and A Secret Garden." — Stefano Coccia, CineClandestino

"Irene M. Borrego’s ‘The Visit and A Secret Garden’ Rescues Spanish Painter Isabel Santaló from Oblivion." — John Hopeweel, Variety

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Main credits

Borrego, Irene M. (film director)
Borrego, Irene M. (screenwriter)
Muñoz Rivas, Manuel (screenwriter)
Mondolo-Burghard, Mariangela (film producer)
Sancho, Renata (film producer)

Other credits

Cinematography, Rita Noriega, Javier Calvo; editing, Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Irene M. Borrego; music, Frederic Mompou.

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Keywords

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