This year, the Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival will host Spanish director and actress Mercedes Ortega and director and screenwriter Arturo Dueñas, who will be present during the festival from October 2 to 6, 2025.

Mercedes Ortega will attend the festival as a jury member and will give a lecture on October 4 at 7 PM at the Helnan Antoniadis Hotel in Alexandria. Her documentary film “Captives” will be screened on October 3 at 3 PM at Green Plaza Cinema.

Meanwhile, Arturo Dueñas will present a public lecture on directing on October 4 at 2:30 PM at Amir Cinema, and his film “Supporting Actresses” will be shown on October 3 at 5 PM at Renaissance Cinema.

Arturo Dueñas Herrero (Paledo, 1962) is a Spanish director, screenwriter, producer, editor, and actor. He combines his creative work with teaching, having taught Spanish language and literature at universities in Estonia, Hungary, Brazil, and Portugal. He runs a production company called “Izgiva” and his short documentary “Dagla: Cinema and Forgetting” was nominated for the Goya Awards.

Mercedes Ortega Piga (Canary Islands, 1970) has worked as a director, screenwriter, and producer of documentaries such as “Prisoners” (2011) and “Captives” (2013). She also has experience as an actress, appearing in works like “Images” (1996) and “Tatao” (2000). Her work combines social commitment, documentary cinema, and an intimate look at women’s stories and unexplored cultural spaces.

The film “Supporting Actresses” is set in the Monastery of Yuste on September 21, 5815. Emperor Charles V, weak and ill, plays Don Juan on his last night, dying, while the most important women in his life appear as nightmares. This is the play titled “Letters to the Emperor”, which a group of actresses is about to premiere. But things do not go as planned.

On the other hand, the film “Captives” tells the story of four Spanish-speaking women’s communities living very different realities: practicing prostitution in old age, experiencing sexual violence, belonging to ethnic minorities, or living as nuns in a monastery. The four women share a common trait: experiencing isolation and social exclusion, which they face with continuous struggle for social integration.

The Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival in Alexandria is an annual event held in the city of Alexandria. It aims to spread cinematic culture, introduce developments in various branches of this art, and strengthen relations among filmmakers worldwide, especially from Mediterranean countries.