Critics' week

A skid row: Spanish director Guillermo Galoe has set his first feature film, presented at Critics' Week, in a hellish place − La Cañada Real, 15 kilometers from Madrid, considered the largest slum in Europe. Thousands of people live along this former Drovers' Road, without electricity or running water, in makeshift, unsanitary dwellings cobbled together from scraps. This neglected area, where many Roma, outcast drug addicts and poor immigrant families live, is regularly targeted for demolition measures − so far, without success.

Ciudad sin sueño ("City Without Dreams") rejects the media gaze that views the slum simply as a problem for authorities to solve and its residents as marginalized criminals. Galoe immersed himself with them for several years to observe their daily lives and draw inspiration from their stories and legends. He first made a short film in 2023 − Aunque es de noche ("Even Though It's Night") − which this feature expands upon with colorful characters and an odd menagerie, starting with Atomica the dog, a serious contender for the Palm Dog award.

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