ZEHN MINUTEN VOR MITTERNACHT
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Singing rap. Biting your nails. Eat a whole apple with its seeds. The yellow pill. Your golden watch. And act for people. Ten minutes to midnight and it will be the last time we see each other.
[ES] Cantar rap. Morderte las uñas. Comer una manzana entera con sus semillas. La pastilla amarilla. Tu reloj dorado. Y actuar para la gente. Diez minutos para medianoche y será la última vez que nos veamos.![]()
Ten Minutes to Midnight asks the question: how do you meet other people? Like an invitation to rediscover Levinas’ ideas, the film traces a path towards a face, the revelation of the infinite and the home of the whole of humanity. Text card: a gentle, manly voice addresses a man named Pascal in the voice-over. The delivery is hesitant. The words stumble and stutter in broken German. Out of the density of the mumbled words, bodies emerge, drawn out from the darkness by fragments electrified in beams of blue light. They dance. The camera then picks out the various different bodies and faces that make up the RambaZamba Theater troupe. Some display the distinctive features of Down’s syndrome. One shot dwells on the face of a young boy who we see experiencing ticks and the extreme mobility of his features indicative of disability. The film thus presents an enigma : Whose voice is expressing the fragile lament in the voice-over? Is it the young boy’s? The voice tells us that Pascal, to whom the words are dedicated, has left the theatre company and is a musician. Bluish smoke rises up from a concert venue, as the young boy’s handsome face and muscular body emerge in a musical epiphany. Ringing in our ears is the heavy, deep sound of 21 DownBeat, his band. We realise that this is Pascal, to whom Mario Sanz is speaking. This belies the film’s delicate tour de force: the director has entangled Pascal’s presence with his own voice, in the raw precariousness of the stumbling delivery. In the course of moving performances, Mario Sanz turns the portrait on its head, gracefully reversing its movement. The director, resigned to the fact that he will never see his protagonist again, turns his disappearance into a philosophical and sensory experience. A remarkable, poetic lesson on the gaze – Ten Minutes to Midnight restores its subject to the complete enigma of otherness and allows us to come face-to-face with this original encounter with the irrevocable “Other like a face”, who always eludes us.
︎︎︎[Text by Claire Lasolle, FIDMarseille selection committee member]
[ESP] Marc Barceló Tost 11/03/2024 | D’A
︎︎︎link
[ESP] 2023 | ACADEMIA DE CINE
︎︎︎link
[ESP] Redacción 11/11/2023 | MUNDODIARIO
︎︎︎link
[ESP] Clara Gorria 06/03/2023 | CULTURPLAZA
︎︎︎link
05/07/2022 | FIDMARSEILLE
︎︎︎link
[ESP] 09/10/2022 | OTROS CINES EUROPA
︎︎︎link
[ESP] Clara Coira 09/10/2022 | MILANA
︎︎︎link
[ES] Cantar rap. Morderte las uñas. Comer una manzana entera con sus semillas. La pastilla amarilla. Tu reloj dorado. Y actuar para la gente. Diez minutos para medianoche y será la última vez que nos veamos.
Ten Minutes to Midnight asks the question: how do you meet other people? Like an invitation to rediscover Levinas’ ideas, the film traces a path towards a face, the revelation of the infinite and the home of the whole of humanity. Text card: a gentle, manly voice addresses a man named Pascal in the voice-over. The delivery is hesitant. The words stumble and stutter in broken German. Out of the density of the mumbled words, bodies emerge, drawn out from the darkness by fragments electrified in beams of blue light. They dance. The camera then picks out the various different bodies and faces that make up the RambaZamba Theater troupe. Some display the distinctive features of Down’s syndrome. One shot dwells on the face of a young boy who we see experiencing ticks and the extreme mobility of his features indicative of disability. The film thus presents an enigma : Whose voice is expressing the fragile lament in the voice-over? Is it the young boy’s? The voice tells us that Pascal, to whom the words are dedicated, has left the theatre company and is a musician. Bluish smoke rises up from a concert venue, as the young boy’s handsome face and muscular body emerge in a musical epiphany. Ringing in our ears is the heavy, deep sound of 21 DownBeat, his band. We realise that this is Pascal, to whom Mario Sanz is speaking. This belies the film’s delicate tour de force: the director has entangled Pascal’s presence with his own voice, in the raw precariousness of the stumbling delivery. In the course of moving performances, Mario Sanz turns the portrait on its head, gracefully reversing its movement. The director, resigned to the fact that he will never see his protagonist again, turns his disappearance into a philosophical and sensory experience. A remarkable, poetic lesson on the gaze – Ten Minutes to Midnight restores its subject to the complete enigma of otherness and allows us to come face-to-face with this original encounter with the irrevocable “Other like a face”, who always eludes us.
︎︎︎[Text by Claire Lasolle, FIDMarseille selection committee member]
Estrenos del talento breve
[ESP] Marc Barceló Tost 11/03/2024 | D’A
︎︎︎link
Candidatura Goya 2024: Mejor cortometraje de ficción
[ESP] 2023 | ACADEMIA DE CINE
︎︎︎link
Filmin presenta: cortometrajes españoles candidatos a los Goya
[ESP] Redacción 11/11/2023 | MUNDODIARIO
︎︎︎link
Entrevista a Mario Sanz (min. 23)
[ESP] Clara Gorria 06/03/2023 | CULTURPLAZA
︎︎︎link
INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR - by CLAIRE LASOLLE
05/07/2022 | FIDMARSEILLE
︎︎︎link
Se anuncia el palmarés de Curtocircuito 2022
[ESP] 09/10/2022 | OTROS CINES EUROPA
︎︎︎link
Curtocircuíto 2022 | Lo mejor de la sección Penínsulas
[ESP] Clara Coira 09/10/2022 | MILANA
︎︎︎link
Documentary
17 minutes | Spain-Germany 2022
︎︎︎Distribution: Marvin&Wayne
︎︎︎Trailer
Presskit: ︎︎︎ENG ︎︎︎ESP
Poster: ︎︎︎ENG ︎︎︎ESP
︎︎︎National Premiere: Curtocircuíto · Penínsulas | Spain, Oct 2022 | Peninsulas Award for Best National Film
︎︎︎Italian Premiere: Festival dei Popoli · Doc At Work - Future Campus | Italy, Nov 2022
︎︎︎Festival Internacional de Jóvenes Realizadores de Granada · Rituales y Visionarios | Spain, Oct 2022
︎︎︎TABAKALERA · Ciclo Cine Contemporáneo | Spain, Jan 2023
︎︎︎ D’A Film Festival · Un impulso colectivo | Spain, March 2023 | Un Impulso Colectivo - Curts Award for Best National Film
Voice, Direction, Camera and Editing - MARIO SANZ
Production - ORNA CINE
Associate Production - EQZE, TERRANOVA
Editing Assistants - CLARA RUS, ÓSCAR VINCENTELLI, IÑIGO FERNÁNDEZ
Camera Assistant - IGNACIO MILLET
Sound Desing and Mixing - XABIER ERKIZIA
Sound Editing - MARTIN SCAGLIA
Color Correction - CLARA RUS
Translation and Voice-over Assistants - VERENA HAMMES, ANDREAS FONTANA
Music - ‘Mitleid’ · 21 DOWNBEAT, ‘NINE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT’ · XABIER ERKIZIA
With the support of - RAMBAZAMBA THEATER, EQZE, 2DEO TABAKALERA
![]()
17 minutes | Spain-Germany 2022
︎︎︎Distribution: Marvin&Wayne
︎︎︎Trailer
Presskit: ︎︎︎ENG ︎︎︎ESP
Poster: ︎︎︎ENG ︎︎︎ESP
SCREENINGS
︎︎︎World Premiere: FIDMarseille · Flash Competition | France, Jul 2022︎︎︎National Premiere: Curtocircuíto · Penínsulas | Spain, Oct 2022 | Peninsulas Award for Best National Film
︎︎︎Italian Premiere: Festival dei Popoli · Doc At Work - Future Campus | Italy, Nov 2022
︎︎︎Festival Internacional de Jóvenes Realizadores de Granada · Rituales y Visionarios | Spain, Oct 2022
︎︎︎TABAKALERA · Ciclo Cine Contemporáneo | Spain, Jan 2023
︎︎︎ D’A Film Festival · Un impulso colectivo | Spain, March 2023 | Un Impulso Colectivo - Curts Award for Best National Film
CREDITS
Cast - PASCAL KUNZE, HIEU PHAM, LEO SOLTER, HEIKO FECHNER, MORITZ HÖHNE, SEBASTIAN URBANSKI, JANA PRIGGE, RUBÉN NSUE, JULIANA GÖTZE, MARIO GAULKE, SASCHA PERTHEL, LIOBA BREITSPRECHER, SARA LU, MATTHIAS GESERICK, GRIT BURMEISTER, BEATRIX BRANDLER, HANS-HARALD JANKE, JONAS SIPPEL, ANDREAS SPECHTL, NELE WINKLERVoice, Direction, Camera and Editing - MARIO SANZ
Production - ORNA CINE
Associate Production - EQZE, TERRANOVA
Editing Assistants - CLARA RUS, ÓSCAR VINCENTELLI, IÑIGO FERNÁNDEZ
Camera Assistant - IGNACIO MILLET
Sound Desing and Mixing - XABIER ERKIZIA
Sound Editing - MARTIN SCAGLIA
Color Correction - CLARA RUS
Translation and Voice-over Assistants - VERENA HAMMES, ANDREAS FONTANA
Music - ‘Mitleid’ · 21 DOWNBEAT, ‘NINE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT’ · XABIER ERKIZIA
With the support of - RAMBAZAMBA THEATER, EQZE, 2DEO TABAKALERA
