The sixth edition of the Festival de Cine Fantástico de Canarias Isla Calavera, to be held next November, will commemorate the 100th anniversary of F. W. Murnau's classic 'Nosferatu', a silent film that was a benchmark of the German expressionist avant-garde. Starring Max Schreck, it is considered the first feature film to deal with the myth of Dracula, imagined by writer Bram Stoker in his gothic fantasy novel published in 1897 and which has subsequently been made into a film on many occasions, including the adaptation made by Francis Ford Coppola 30 years ago.
As part of its program, the Festival Isla Calavera will offer the screening of 'Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens' ('Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'), in a special session accompanied by the original score by Canary Islands composer Jonay Armas written for the occasion. The musician will use various analog instruments for the live performance of a composition that will be premiered at the Festival Isla Calavera 2022. The presence of some of these instruments, such as the theremin, whose character invites to sculpt unexpected sounds in each performance, will make the projection an unrepeatable experience.
In addition, the Skull Island Festival will display an exhibition of unpublished photographs and illustrations created by different artists, which will pay tribute to the iconography of Nosferatu.
Nosferatu' first saw the light of day on February 16, 1922 in the Netherlands. The official premiere took place on March 4 in Berlin, with original music by Hans Erdmann performed live. A mythical score that was lost and of which only two suites are known. Since then, many authors have written or improvised their own soundtrack to accompany the live screening of Murnau's film.
About Jonay Armas
Nominated twice for the Canary Islands Music Awards and recognized in Fimucité, Jonay Armas was born in the 1980s in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His works for cinema include titles such as 'Un cielo impasible' (2021), 'Blanco en Blanco' (2019). 'La estrella errante' (2018) or 'Europa' (2017) He is also the author of two solo piano albums, 'Nui' (2015) and 'Índigo' (2019), nominated for the MIN awards for independent music. His proposal to set 'Nosferatu' to music is based on integrating the electronic sonority of modern times with the mysticism and visual imagery of an immortal work.
About the Festival de Cine Fantástico de Canarias Isla Calavera (Skull Island Fantastic Film Festival of the Canary Islands)
The Festival de Cine Fantástico de Canarias Isla Calavera is organized by the Asociación Cultural Charlas de Cine, the Asociación Cultural Isla Calavera, Multicines Tenerife and the specialized publication TumbaAbierta.com. It was born in 2017 and in its five years of trajectory it has achieved an important national repercussion and is already considered one of the five most relevant fantastic film festivals in the country.
In the international arena it has also become one of the appointments to take into account, thanks to the participation of relevant figures such as Rick Baker, Caroline Munro, David Naughton, Enzo G. Castellari, Mick Garris, Neil Marshall, Charlotte Kirk, Nicholas Rowe, Colin Arthur or Jack Taylor. Other guests who have visited Tenerife as part of the Isla Calavera Festival and who have put the event on the map of film meetings are Álex de la Iglesia, Belén Rueda, Paco Plaza, Carolina Bang, Paco Cabezas, Víctor Matellano, Juanma Bajo Ulloa and Lola Dueñas, among others.
