Synopsis

After the sudden death of her husband, a reclusive artist invites life long friends to her farm in Spain and reveals a shocking plan. before the weekend ends, the friends must reveal secrets from the past that will drive her toward a devastating choice.

Haunted by a childhood spent in war-ravaged Beirut, Leah, a shy artist craved a place and a companion that made her feel secure... she found both when a high school romance bloomed into a marriage for life, and Neil, her husband, built an isolated farm for her in the remotest hills of Andalusia. And then... he was gone.

Now, in a crisis like nothing she has ever faced before, Leah calls her closest friends, Beth and Gregory to join her for a weekend at the farm. When they arrive, Leah reveals to them that she has made a shocking choice that will affect all of their lives forever.

Confronted with her dramatic and shocking decision, Gregory and Beth each are faced with a heartbreaking dilemma: whether to reveal the secrets that they know about Neil and shatter their decades-old bond with Leah, or to allow her to hold on to her cherished memories with potentially fatal consequences.

In the midst of all this, Alix a young, rebellious woman arrives on the farm, escaping from her oppressive family, to spend the hot, Andalusian summer with her environmentalist uncle, Andrés, who oversees the farm for Leah.

As the weekend progresses, and Leah, Beth and Gregory wrestle with their deep, intertwined history they each find that they have valuable hard-earned life lessons to impart to the young, troubled Alix...

Meanwhile, as Leah discovers the long held, buried secrets that torment her best friends - she must reassess the foundations of her life, and make the hardest, most important decision she will ever make.

Director’s Statement

In “Under Spanish Skies” a group of 40 - something friends approach a midlife reckoning. For many of us the dazzling internet revolution and acceleration of communication and technology has brought with it a paradoxical sense of loss. We paired up in the old way, captured our past on celluloid and rely on faulty memories to preserve our stories. We are the generation that came of age in the analog world but have spent most of our adulthood in an emerging digital world.

I chose Andalusia as the setting for this film because of all the places I have lived and visited, this part of the world seems to defy the razor of modernity in the most unique of ways. Stubbornly traditional, the people of this region nurture a deep appreciation for what they have, and a preternatural awareness of the fragility of its rugged, fertile natural environment.

When I set out to create the world of this film, I made for myself a set of parameters that were both practical and thematic: A short time span, a single location, and characters who have known each other a long time. Films that have left a big impression on me: “La Règle du Jeu”, “Persona”, “Knife in the Water”, “The Big Chill”, and “Festen” ... are all movies that rely on great performances, the excavation of memory and a claustrophobic world that heightens sexual and dramatic tension.

The story that this film is based on is true, told to me by a close friend several years ago. While all of the details of Leah’s story and character are different, the core mystery of her decision is the same paradox that fascinated me when I first heard about it. As the film has evolved, every step of the way I have had to remind myself to stay faithful to the true north of this story: a tragic choice engendered out of friendship, loyalty, and love.