"TANIT" (2026) | Film

Description

TANIT, THE CLASSIC BY NÚRIA ALBÓ,

ARRIVES IN CINEMAS ON SEPTEMBER 18

TANIT, written and directed by Pep Garrido, brings to the cinema one of the most beloved youth novels in Catalan literature, the eponymous story by Núria Albó, awarded the Vaixell de Vapor prize in 1984 and read by generations of readers.

The film will be released in theaters on September 18 and aspires to be one of the main Catalan proposals for family audiences of the season.

Synopsis

In the heart of Montseny, little Tanit roams freely because she has no choice: a risky pregnancy forces her mother to rest. One day, while looking for his dog Xuc in the forest, he runs into Grandma Perona, a grumpy old woman who lives in isolation and whom everyone takes for a witch. Tanit will become her apprentice while an unexpected event shakes her world and forces her to grow up before her time.

Address Notes

Based on the classic by Núria Albó that so many generations of readers discovered as children, TANIT reaches theaters as an invitation to recover that simple and valuable gesture of going to the cinema together, adults and children. A tale of witches without witches - or perhaps with all the possible witches -, an intimate and wild adventure about growing up, listening and learning from those women who have known how to look at the world from another place.

The great virtue of Núria Albó's story, which the film wants to preserve, is her desire not to infantilize the youngest viewers, to treat them as a competent and sensitive audience.

TANIT talks about the ages of life, the place we give to childhood and old age, and also about a delicate issue that is only now beginning to cease to be a taboo: the pain for unborn children or children who die shortly after birth, perinatal grief, already present in the original work of Núria Albó. Without tremendisms, with rigor and light.

"In Dolça Salvans's gaze there is something that inevitably refers to Ana Torrent in the films of Víctor Erice or Carlos Saura."
"An unusual emotional complexity."
— Cinema Looks

Production of kilometer zero: the discovery of Dolça and filming in Montseny
From the beginning, TANIT's production wanted to be respectful of the work of Núria Albó and was planned in permanent dialogue with the territory of the book: the Catalan Montseny.

To find our Tanit, a very extensive search process was carried out throughout the Catalan Montseny among more than 300 girls, until we found one of the great pillars of the film: its extraordinary protagonist, Dolça Salvans Portell, a ten-year-old girl who lives in Viladrau, in a farmhouse in the middle of the forest. Her natural connection to the forest and unique personality made her an immediate revelation to the film's team.

Completing the cast are Isabel Rocatti, in the role of Grandma Perona; Sara Espígul; Sergio Caballero, as Tanit's father; and Núria Molas, a rancher from Montseny discovered while the team was searching for locations, who makes her film debut playing Aunt Mercè. Also worth highlighting is the extraordinary soundtrack composed by Clara Peya.

The Catalan Montseny was also omnipresent during filming: the film was filmed in La Garriga, Viladrau, Arbúcies, Cànoves i Samalús and Sant Celoni —in Montnegre—, during different seasons of the year: spring, summer and autumn.

Pep Garrido, director

Pep Garrido (Barcelona, 1979) is a screenwriter, director and producer of Atiende Films. In 2004 he was one of the founders of Cinema en Curs, a pioneering film pedagogy project.

As a director, he co-directed with Xesc Cabot the documentary Bustamante Perkins (2013), Audience Award at In-Èdit, and the fiction feature film Sense sostre (2019), premiered at the Gijón International Film Festival. Recently, the short documentary Dol i fa sol (2023), co-directed with Maria Besora, won the award for best short film at In-Èdit and was nominated for the Gaudí Prize. As a screenwriter, he has signed, among others, the feature films La millor optió and Desmontando un elephant.

Production and distribution

TANIT is a co-production between Valencia and Catalonia. The executive producers of TANIT are Xesc Cabot from Atiende Films (Barcelona) and Xavier Crespo from DACSA Produccions (Valencia). The project has had the support of the ICEC, the IVC, 3Cat and Àpunt, and is distributed by Syldavia Cinema. It had its world premiere in the official section of the D'A Film Festival Barcelona and has obtained a Special Mention from the Jury at the FicCat Festival. It can also be seen at various European festivals.

At the same time and in parallel, the Catalan production company Atiende Films, in an extraordinary moment of form, premieres in Catalonia the fiction feature film NOTES FOR A CONSENT FICTION, by Ana Serret, on July 17.