Calparsoro, Daniel

(1968- )

   Daniel Calparsoro comes from a wealthy Basque family; he traveled widely, trying any number of jobs before settling down in Madrid to study simultaneously politics, drawing, and film. He showed a particular interest in certain strands of the European and American avant garde movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He has also mentioned Robert Bresson and Yasujiro Ozu as early influences, and their aesthetic rigor can be recognized in Calparsoro's slow rhythms, punctuated by silences and the use of empty barren spaces. In his early films, taciturn characters wander around urban wastelands, as if lost.

   Salto al vacío (Jumping into the Void, 1995), Pasajes (1996), and A ciegas (Blindly, 1997) constitute a kind of aesthetic trilogy with Nawja Nimri as protagonist. In all of them, she plays related roles of a marginal, strong manipulative woman. Although these landscapes refer to actual social realities, they are also metaphors, as in Bresson, for the souls of people. In Salto al vacío, inner realities and textures are more important than straightforward narrative content. Far from being a polished film, it was striking enough for El Deseo to finance his second effort, Pasajes.

   Asfalto (Asphalt, 2000), starring Nimri, was for Calparsoro a return to marginal backgrounds and wild urban landscapes. In 2002, he shot Guerreros (Warriors), a network narrative following the trajectories of a group of soldiers during the Iraq War.

   Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema by Alberto Mira