COMPLETE UNKNOWN

Written by Jonás Trueba & Gonzalo Ballester

Directed by Jonás Trueba

SYNOPSIS

Ramón is a young painter who travels from village to village with the educational missions of the second spanish Republic, trying to bring painting to isolated rural areas. In one of these missions he meets a school teacher who he marries and the two of them have a daughter. But the outbreak of the civil war interrupts their lives, leaving Rámon widowed and condemned to exile. His life turns inward ; the only thing that keeps him going is his particular way of relating to painting. COMPLETE UNKNOWN sheds light on a person who had the existential need to exist, a character who restores our faith in our place in the world.

DIRECTOR’S BIO

Jonás Trueba has written and directed the following films: Todas las canciones hablan de mí (2010), for which he was nominated for the Goya Award for Best New Director, Los Ilusos (2013), which won awards and acclaim from critics and audiences following its tour of interna- tional festivals, Los exiliados románticos (2015), winner of the Special Jury Award at Malaga Festival among other awards and festivals, La reconquista (2016), which participated in the Official Section of San Sebastian Festival, as well as in numerous international festivals, winner of the 2016 RNE Ojo Crítico Award. At the end of that year, he started Quién lo impide, a project bringing cinema closer to different young teenagers, which was shown in different pieces, as a film in progress, and which will be released later this year.

In 2019 he released La virgen de agosto (The August Virgin), Fipresci Award and Special Jury Mention at the 2019 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It was chosen among the best films of 2020 by newspapers and magazines such as Cahiers du Cinéma and Libération. The film was recently nominated to the César Awards (the French Film Academy Awards) in the Best Foreign Film category.

After shooting La reconquista, Jonás Trueba had started working on Quién lo impide (Who’s Stopping Us), a project bringing cinema closer to different young teenagers, which was shown in different pieces, as a film in progress. A feature-film version of Quién lo impide recently premiered at San Sebastian Film Festival 2021, where it won the Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance, Feroz Zinemaldia for Best Film and the FIPRESCI Award.

He is also the author of the medium-length film Miniaturas (2011), and co-wrote the films Más pena que Gloria (2000) and Vete de mí (2005), both directed by Víctor García León, and El baile de la Victoria (2009), directed by Fernando Trueba, for which he was nominated for the Goya Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is the author of the book Las ilusiones (Editorial Periférica) and has written about cinema in various media. He has also made some video clips such as Arcadia en flor, by Rafael Berrio; Oda al amor efímero, by Tulsa; La gran broma fi- nal, by Nacho Vegas, and Balada Baladí, by El Hijo.