Miguel López Beraza

Writer / Director

Spain

Miguel López Beraza is an architect, writer and filmmaker from Madrid. In 2012 he received a scholarship to study filmdirecting in DocNomads, a European documentary filmmaking MA held in Portugal, Brussels and Budapest. In 2014 he received a grant to study scriptwriting at the Cuban Film School, EICTV. Miguel’s short films have won numerous national and international awards, such as the Spanish academy award Goya 2015, New Horizons T-Mobile best short and the Bavarian TV award. His films have appeared in festivals like Rotterdam IFF, Hamburg, Sarajevo and Seattle IFF.

Project

Creatures

As borders are drawn across the surface of the Earth, different stories start to grow around them.

An astronaut is in space when civil war divides his homeland into multiple new nations. Having lost everyone he loves, he decides to isolate himself in eternal orbit with the animals he is researching. Back home, the new countries fight over his nationality.

Two young neighbours begin a secret romance from opposite rooftops. separated by a giant border wall and conflicting governments, they send carrier pigeons with messages to communicate. The relationship continues even as they grow up to have their own families, but always under the constant threat of being discovered.

A zoologist is caught between two borders on a glacier while chasing a rare tiger. She is forced to set up camp when neither of the guards on each side will allow her back in. Though lifelong enemies, the tensions between the guards start to soften as they both become involved in the zoologist’s mission.

A woman succeeds in returning from death after facing multiple challenges. She has an important message for the living, but no passport. This presents problems at border control, where staff will have to make a decision on this unusual case.