San Sebastián Buzz Title ‘Dance of the Living’ Gets a First Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

San Sebastián buzz title “Dance of the Living,” the awaited second feature by Jose Alayón which world premieres Friday at San Sebastian’s New Directors competition, now has a first trailer, shared in exclusivity with Variety by sales agent Bendita Film Sales.

The trailer captures the double attraction of the film. One is an introduction to Canary Islands wrestling, lucha canaria, an ancestral tradition which dates back to the Islands’ first Berber settlers. In it, a wrestler tries to force his opponent to touch the ground with another part of their body other than their feet. In one spectacular scene, a wrestler charges forward, picking up another, Miguel, the father protagonist of the film, and simply throws him onto the ground.

Unspooling on the blowsy Canary Island of Fuerteventura, the main narrative in the trailer and indeed turns on Miguel and daughter Mariana who struggle to move forward after the death of wife and mother Pilar, also a champion wrestler. Their whole world is of traditional Canarian wrestling. But Miguel’s has a chronic knee injury and Mariana’s rage at the world pushes her to bite an opponent. “She insulted my mother,” Mariana claimed. In reality, Mariana feels she’s insulting her mother’s memory by failing to make the grade at wrestling. 

Further shoots take in Miguel’s massive torso – Ayalón has a particular fascination with bodies, a brutal sun hitting a nearby  range which looks like a mountain on Mars, dust swept by the wind, Mariana walking across a scrub desert landscape, as Miguel and Mariana attempt to come to terms with their loss. “Help me,” Mariana pleads. But for much of the film Miguel is too shut up in his own remorse to even help himself. 

Alayón says he was drawn to Canarian wrestling by its sense of “authenticity” and latent metaphor. “This metaphor, to resist, to remain on your feet, to hold on, to keep your balance, to fight seemed very powerful to me. It is an idea that can be transposed onto many narratives, because this form of struggle is not  contained to the sport, but in what continues to exist in the lives of these people  after they leave the terrero wrestling ring.”

He added: “Canarian wrestling is perhaps one of the last surviving spaces of cultural resistance in the archipelago. There’s something unique about this practice that goes far beyond sport. That spirit, the quiet pride in holding one’s ground, in refusing to yield, has become the driving force of my film.” 

“Dance” is set up at Tenerife-based El Viaje Films which Ayalón founded in 2004 and whose credits also include Lav Diaz’s 2025 Cannes Première title “Magellan,” Macu Machín’s double Malaga Fest winner “The Undergrowth” and “Matadero,” from “Sirât” co-writer Santiago Fillol.  

Co-producing is Blond Indian Films, launched in Colombia by director and Colombian sound designer Carlos Esteban García and Danish producer Katrin Pors. It co-produced Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “Birds of Passage.”

Key tech credits include ace DP Mauro Herce, cinematographer on Cannes Jury Prize winner “Sirât” which just been selected as Spain’s Oscar entry and a friend of Alayón’s since their film school days at Cuba’s San Antonio de los Banos’ EICTV. 

“Dance of the Living” is written by Marina Alberti, who helmed “Aitana,” and Samuel M. Delgado, director of the Ayalón-produced Venice Critics’ Week title “They Carry Death,” both other key figures on the Canary Island’s burgeoning film scene. 

“The most important thing that has happened in filmmaking in the Canary Islands is that people who had the need to make films, to seek a somewhat genuine vision and reflect on ourselves, have come together,” Alayón has told Variety.