“Back to Riaño”, a film by Miriam Martin, is one of the four films showing in the Hot Docs Made in Spain Shorts Programme screening on 3May2024. It is a case study in government waste and arrogant stupidity.
The locality of Riaño had nine 14th century villages destroyed in order to construct a dam that was supposed to provide irrigation and hydro electricity but proved to be a useless governmental infrastructure project (some pockets no doubt were lined) and made operational hours before an EU environmental directive would have halted the operation of the dam and required the area to be restored to its original condition.
Fierce opposition to the project by inhabitants brought crushing repression by the army.
The story is told in between segments of a major Spanish bike race which is cut into by footage of the repression, interviews with inhabitants facing relocation, footage showing pre demolition beauty of both architecture and topography and actual demolitions. The bike riders glide through the beautiful locality (what’s left of it) oblivious to history as their goal is to win as was the socialist government’s aim to defeat all opposition and proceed with the construction. Simultaneously real and surreal.
RKS 2024 Film Rating: 85/100.
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