In THE MAN WITH THE ANSWERS you’re invited on the perfect summer road-trip with ex-championship diver Viktoras, and the handsome Mathias. Starting off in Greece, and continuing through the picturesque European landscapes to Bavaria, Germany. En-route there’s a stop off in Madrid where CARMEN & LOLA will be waiting. This is bound to be the trip of a lifetime, you may even find love on the way, all done safely from the comfort of your own home. The perfect armchair travel adventure this summer!

The Man With The Answers

Ex-championship diver Viktoras whiles away his days on the Greek coast, toiling away at a factory with only his dreams, medals and grandmother for company. When a phone call summons him to Germany, a simple road trip is the answer – that is until he crosses paths with the handsome Mathias – a free-spirited hitchhiker who tempts Viktoras to take the road not taken.

‘The Man with the Answers’ is a picture-postcard travelogue about the familial ties that bind, the boys that catch our eye, and the twists and turns that lead us home.

Director Interview

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Carmen and Lola

17year old Carmen lives in a thriving Roma community in the suburbs of Madrid. Like every other woman she has ever met ,she is destined to be married to a boy of their parents’ choosing. But when Lola, a fellow Roma girl with dreams of going to university and succeeding on her own terms, catches her eye at the local market, everything changes–  with explosive results.

Heaving with the passion and determination of a love denied, Arantxa Echevarría’s ‘Carmen&Lola’ thrusts us into the customs, music, and revelry of Romani culture, told through the eyes of two women driven by their desire to live as one, while retaining the traditions they hold dear.

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

In 2009, a news report from Granada caught my attention. It was about the first female gypsy couple to get married in Spain. Samesex marriage had been legal since 2005, but it had taken them 4 years to decide to take that step. Naturally, the women had asked the newspaper to use madeup names Rosario and Sara and to not show their faces.

Some lives are like boxing bouts. Rosario and Sara were forced to climb into the ring of prejudice and taboos. They had been rejected by their neighbours, families and the entire gypsy community. But in spite of it, they still decided to get married and be presented in the media, perhaps not showing their faces, but at least lending their voices to a helpless collective.

Women who openly manifest their sexuality and wish to live as lesbians are forced to go far away from the gypsy world, because they feel that they are attacking the legacy of culture and family, their own mothers who raised them to be both perfect wives and mothers. Many leave school very young, have no education, and will never be able to find work outside of their environment because, as a general rule, white people don’t hire gypsy women.

How are they not going to hide their sexuality? Being a woman, I think I have a different view of the world, of observing reality and even telling stories. I am a director and a woman, perhaps not in that order, and that marks me. I felt a moral obligation to give a voice to those who don’t have their own. Cinema has become my loudspeaker for certain causes which I believe must be represented.

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About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.