international competition programme
The New Ruins
(Manuel Embalse / 2024 / 90 min / Argentina)
An amateur archaeologist obsessed with electronic waste records images and sounds for ten years, as part of an intuitive investigation. As he shapes a personal, playful and musical diary, he travels the world tirelessly, trying to decipher what his findings hide and how he might interpret them.
One day, in a workshop recycling electronic objects, a strange revelation happens. From that moment on, his search takes an unexpected turn and, following the trail of a ghost poet, new questions appear. As time goes by and new ruins accumulate, the archaeologist sees his cat named Pendrive grow up and asks him: “Dear friend, how will history be written in the future? Who will write it?”
Thus, between absurdity and darkness, the archaeologist will try to understand the current state of technology and its link with memory, in times of environmental crisis and overproduction.
Director’s statement :
I’ve always wanted to be a paleontologist. Like many of my 90’s generation, “Jurassic Park” was a foundational milestone, perhaps not only with respect to the dinosaurs themselves, but also in relation to the possibility of reconstructing the past from a present, towards the future.
E-waste as a trace of the present began to generate my curiosity in 2012. That year, I got my first cellphone with camera and I became an archivist of my own everyday images and sounds in relation to technology and memory. Over time, those images and sounds began to be joined by scraps of technological junk that I secretly collect: batteries, chips, casings, pieces of external disks, tempered glass… I began to catalog the material until the present day, ten years later. Little by little, it became a film: “The New Ruins”.
The beauty, the chaos, the horror, the absurdity and the fragility of the world equally inhabit in my archive. And those images and sounds also inhabit, without leaving any apparent trace, all those obsolete electronic devices that I accumulated and photographed for years. It’s inevitable for me to wonder then: how will history be reconstructed in a couple of decades, if everything is recycled, destroyed or abandoned?
Manuel Embalse
Buenos Aires, 1991. Member of Antes Muerto Cine Collective, where he’s director, producer, assistant director, editor, sound designer and translator. Degree in Audiovisual Arts of National University of Art. His first feature film “What I’m doing in this visual world?” was awarded by the Young Biennial of Art in 2019 and premiered at Festifreak 2020, screened in Argentina, Italy, Austria and has its theatrical release in Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia.”The new ruins” is his second feature as director.
He lives in Argentina and he survives this sad reality working as editor and sound designer of films. Some of his works: coeditor with Tatiana Mazú González of “Owner’s portrait” by Joaquín Maito (Best First Feature at its premiere at IDFF Ji.hlava 2018); assistant director, assistant editor and additional cameraman for Tatiana Mazú González’s “Shady River” (Charles de Beauregard Award at its premiere at FIDMarseille 2020); editor of “Esquí” directed by Manque La Banca (premiered at Berlinale Forum 2021 and received the FIPRESCI award); sound designer of “Danube” directed by Agustina Pérez Rial (premiered at Mar del Plata IFF 2021 and awarded as Best Director in Argentina’s Competition); editor and sound designer of “A summer love” by Eline Marx (Short Joy Competition at Jihlava 2022); editor of “Every document of Civilization” directed by Tatiana Mazú González (Charles de Beauregard Award at its premiere at FIDMarseille 2024); sound designer of “Boletín interno” directed by Meri Franco Mao (best feature in Festifreak 2024); editor of “Under the flags, the sun” directed by Juanjo Pereira (premiered at Berlinale Panorama 2025 and received the FIPRESCI award); editor of “Museum of the night” directed by Fermín Eloy Acosta (premiered at Thesalonniki International Film Festival 2025 and received a Special Mention); editor of “Twice a beast” directed by Luis Esguerra (premiered at FICCI 2025); editor and sound recorder of “Intersections” directed by Julián Galay (premiered at FIDMarseille 2025 in First Film Competitions).
Filmography :
The universal history of reality (2013)
Blue ice meditation (2014)
Nature’s technology (2014)
I won’t let you down (2015)
Pray in a lottery (2016)
Delete videos (2017)
The natal chart of Argentina (2018)
Encyclopedia Catalog (2020)
What I’m doing in this visual world? (2020′)
What I’m doing in this world of sound? 2023)
First image from Mars (2023)
The new ruins (2024)
