Karlos Alastruey

He holds a PhD in Physical Sciences from the University of the Basque Country and is an associate professor at the Public University of Navarre, where his teaching and research focus on applied physics and automatic control. He also teaches documentary filmmaking and produces science-related documentaries within the university environment. Alongside his academic career, he has developed an extensive career as an independent filmmaker, with a filmography encompassing fiction feature films, documentaries, short films and experimental works.

Alastruey is a member of the Baháʼí community.

Film career

Following his debut with El bosque de la luz, Alastruey made several short films and documentaries, including Roca Bon: en busca de lo sublime, which received the Best Arts in Film award at the Napa Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival.

In 2009, he directed his first fiction feature film, Lodo, which received several awards at international film festivals and marked the beginning of a period focused on auteur feature filmmaking. In the following years, he released, among other works, La mirada negra, Anamorphosis, El ángel entre la niebla, La extensión del cielo, Nexos and El espíritu de la escalera.

From the mid-2010s onwards, he combined feature filmmaking with an extensive production of fiction and experimental short films. From 2023, his work increasingly combined fiction and documentary filmmaking, with titles including Entre el agua y la tierra, Abel Azcona: el artista detonante, La guerra de las máquinas, La isla and Ane fuera de la caverna, several of which premiered at international festivals in Greece, France, India and Kosovo.

His filmography comprises more than forty works; he has worked in fiction, documentary and experimental cinema across short, medium-length and feature films.

Early works (2003–2008)

His first short film, El bosque de la luz, was awarded the Gold Medal of UNICA in 2004. He subsequently alternated between fiction short films and documentaries focusing on education and on various contemporary artists and creators, including Escuelas, Diálogos con Juan Leyva, Los ojos de Siran and El arte del espíritu.

During this early period, he was particularly active in short filmmaking, experimenting with different narrative and visual approaches. As Alastruey explained in an interview given on the occasion of the release of Lodo, works such as Ardia and, particularly, La sombra—written by Javier Alastruey—saw him begin to develop expressive devices such as conceptual editing and a narrative approach based on silence and the association of images, features that would characterize much of his later filmography.

In 2008, he directed the documentary Roca Bon: en busca de lo sublime, about the work of painter Ferrán Roca Bon. The film received the Best Arts in Film award at the Napa Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival in California.

Consolidation as a director (2009–2014)

Alastruey became established as a director with the release of Lodo (2009), his first fiction feature film.

The film received several distinctions at international festivals, including being named a finalist at the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films, the Golden Aphrodite for Best Soundtrack at the Cyprus International Film Festival, the award for Best Surrealist Film at the New York City International Film Festival, and several awards at the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival, including Best Director.

Between 2010 and 2014, he directed the feature films La mirada negra, Anamorphosis, El ángel entre la niebla, La extensión del cielo, Nexos and El espíritu de la escalera. During this period, he developed an auteur style increasingly characterized by symbolic and fantastic elements. Anamorphosis received the Best Director and Best Soundtrack awards in the surrealist film category at the 2011 New York City International Film Festival.

Recent work (2015–present)

From 2015 onwards, Alastruey increased his production of short films, combining fiction and experimental works with new documentary projects. During this period, his works included AntiBasque, Short Lives in a Large Room, Worldlines, Kolore Ezkutuak, Rhea and subsequent installments of the Worldlines series.

In 2023, his feature film Entre el agua y la tierra premiered at the Kimolos International Film Festival in Greece. The film received favorable reviews, with critics highlighting its contemplative character and use of visual symbolism.

Since then, he has developed fiction and documentary projects in parallel. The latter include Abel Azcona: el artista detonante, about artist Abel Azcona; La guerra de las máquinas, focusing on the ethical and legal implications of the use of artificial intelligence in armed conflicts; and La isla, co-directed with John Petrizzelli and focusing on the diaspora of the Annobonese people.

In fiction, he premiered Ane fuera de la caverna at the Independent and Experimental Film Festival of Kerala in India, while his short films El año en que me miraste, Aurora I and The Shortest Day of the Year were presented at international festivals in France and Greece. In 2026, he also began shooting Urtaro Ikusezina (Estación invisible), his first feature film shot entirely in the Basque language.

Style

Following his early works, from short films such as Ardia and, particularly, La sombra, Alastruey's cinema increasingly incorporated conceptual editing, narrative use of silence, and symbolic, fantastic and surrealist elements. This development found some of its most representative expressions in feature films such as Lodo and Anamorphosis.

In his more recent work, reviews of Entre el agua y la tierra have highlighted the film's contemplative character, its use of landscape as a narrative element, and its symbolic and spiritual mise-en-scène. Among the latter, La guerra de las máquinas and La isla address contemporary issues relating, respectively, to the ethical and legal implications of artificial intelligence in armed conflicts and to the diaspora of the Annobonese people.

Filmography

Awards and recognition

Year Work Festival or organization Award 2004 El bosque de la luz UNICA Gold Medal 2008 Roca Bon: en busca de lo sublime Napa Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival Best Arts in Film 2010 Lodo New York City International Film Festival Best Surrealist Film 2010 Lodo Los Angeles Reel Film Festival Best Director 2011 Anamorphosis New York City International Film Festival Best Director 2011 Anamorphosis New York City International Film Festival Best Soundtrack 2017 Kolore Ezkutuak Top Shorts Best Experimental Film