Where the pines complain

As 2025 draws to a close, among many other misfortunes, Spain has suffered unprecedented devastation from forest fires. Almost 400,000 hectares have been destroyed, leaving a particularly dark mark on Galicia, Castile and León, and Extremadura. It has been the worst year since 1994, far surpassing 2022, when 306,000 hectares were lost. This year, an area equivalent to the island of Mallorca has been devastated, with villages and landscapes completely destroyed and the loss of homes, memories and landscapes of incalculable personal and sentimental value. The fire ravaged Las Médulas in León, but also struck with fierce virulence in Orense and Zamora.

All this is the subject of the short film ‘Donde se quejan los pinos’ (Where the Pines Complain), directed by Ed Antoja, which is up for the Best Fiction Short Film award at the 40th edition of the Goya Awards. Its pre-selection comes at a particularly sensitive time, precisely because of the precedent of such a sinister summer for the Iberian Peninsula's forests and because, given the scale of such a calamity, the debate on the deliberate burning of land in Spain has been reopened. That is why this short film reaffirms the director's desire to combine social awareness with a narrative that is accessible to the general public.

‘Donde se quejan los pinos’ is a story that exposes the silenced side of arson, tackling a reality that is as uncomfortable as it is urgent to address: the premeditated burning of forests, a practice linked to family conflicts, economic interests and speculative processes which, far from being exceptional, are among the main causes of forest fires in the country's much-afflicted landscape.

Official investigations into such devastation have determined that a significant proportion of the fires were deliberately set. The short film connects with this reality through fiction, showing how a fire can destroy not only a landscape but also the lives of those caught up in blame, silence and irreparable wounds.

The script introduces us to Serafín, an elderly man who owns a forest plot in a rural area. The new local urban development plan is advancing inexorably and has all the inhabitants convinced or subjugated. The mayor, the local police, and even the protagonist's own daughter try to convince him to sell his land. But Serafín is the only person who refuses to accept deforestation in the face of speculative forces that will do whatever it takes to break the last resistance.

With its meticulous staging and tone of contemporary rural drama, ‘Donde se quejan los pinos’ becomes a tool for raising awareness about a problem that affects natural heritage, biodiversity, and the daily lives of thousands of families.

Before its pre-selection for the next edition of the Goya Awards, the film has already garnered more than a hundred international selections, culminating in 30 awards. This is also largely due to the choice of a renowned cast headed by Ramón Barea, winner of the National Theatre Award; Francesc Orella, acclaimed in films such as El guardián invisible (The Invisible Guardian), and Almudena Amor, with notable performances in El buen patrón (The Good Boss) and La mujer dormida (The Sleeping Woman). Together they construct an emotionally intense story that combines the tension of a rural thriller with a profound reflection on the scars left by fire, both on the land and on people.