RAINING STONES…

In Winter, Summer, Spring and Autumn… for many people, it rains stones every day of the year. It doesn’t matter if they shelter themselves under their umbrellas because these won’t stand and they will break. Unlike others for whom it’s always sunny. Everyone knows that you can’t fit everyone’s taste.

“Raining Stones” is a film from 1993 by Ken Loach which deals with a contemporary social problem: unemployment. The plot is set in the late 1980’s in a poor neighbourhood of Manchester, one of the toughest periods of unemployment in Britain. Bob, the protagonist, is an unemployed person who is trying to make a living and make some money, even if it’s only to buy a dress for her daughter’s first communion, faithful to the Catholic traditions of the time. He is a proud man who won’t doubt about doing possible and impossible to be successful.

“Raining Stones” is a film with an obvious social commitment, which talks about the everyday things of the English society of that time which could be extrapolated to our present society. It talks about anonymous people who find themselves struggling; it deals with so-called losers. As a festival deeply committed to the social reality of our time, we can’t omit this relationship with our most recent past. Surely, if we looked back, we could begin to understand contemporary society.

And as Ken Loach said, “there are still people who fight for those who poorly live”. Still, some people tell stories with a camera. They haven’t become resigned to be a mere spectator of what happens and make the notaries of social reality, which is sometimes difficult to cope with. We only play the role of the middleman, we turn the lights off and project on a White screen, as White as Bob’s daughter’s dress. It is our little contribution.

Thank you all for still relying on “Mi Retina me engaña“.
Happy 14th edition 2016.

Antonio Donís

Director of 14th Ponferrada International Film  Festival