Tanit

Young Tanit becomes the apprentice of the witch Perona, while the death of the baby sister her family was expecting shakes their world and forces her to grow up too soon.

In the heart of Montseny, little Tanit roams freely because she has no other choice: her mother's high-risk pregnancy keeps her confined to bed. One day, while searching for her dog Xuc in the forest, Tanit meets Grandma Perona, an old woman who lives alone in the woods and whom everyone takes for a witch.
Tanit begins to learn the secrets of the forest alongside her, but Perona's health deteriorates rapidly, threatening her wild way of life. Meanwhile, at home, the death of the long-awaited sister forces Tanit to grow up too soon.

Main country of production

Spain

Director's note

"Tanit" is a coming-of-age story in the shape of a witch's tale.
Above all, it seeks to be a film about transmission – about the hard, difficult, and profound conversations that children should have, but rarely do, with the adults around them. It is a film that places at its centre the need to listen to children and to let them speak, as children, even when what they say calls into question the certainties of the adult world.
That is also, as Xesc will tell you now, what we dream of offering to family audiences: cinema for families who are not only looking for easy entertainment, but who want films that speak about what truly matters – a cinema that treats children not just as children, but as spectators.

Like all witch tales, "Tanit" is a story about the importance of naming life and reality – about the importance of speaking, of saying things out loud.
It dares to address perinatal grief, the pain of families who have lost a baby or a child even before birth; the stages of life, old age, and death; the lack of communication between parents and children. But also the beauty of the world and our landscapes, of our festivals and rituals, of the strength of friendship.

Because to put words to life – to what we feel, what we believe in, and what we fight for – in a world overtaken by lies and simulacra, is still an act of resistance and dissent.
That is why, for us, "Tanit" is a luminous story, a story of hope – the story of a girl who learns, who grows, who discovers, and who claims the power of her own voice.

Producer's note

When, in 2019, together with my partner at Atiende Films, Pep Garrido, we began to consider the adaptation of "Tanit" into a film, we both saw very clearly that "Tanit" came to fill a gap in the Spanish film industry – and also in many European film landscapes – that of auteur family cinema.
The book "Tanit" by Núria Albó;, published in 1984, was already a work that addressed children in a very special way, without infantilising them; it understood that childhood does not need to be sugar-coated, but respected. Together with Pep, we have tried to preserve that spirit at every step of the process of producing what is now the feature film "Tanit."
Today we are delighted and excited to present "Tanit" as one of those films – still not many, though we hope there will soon be many more – that are perfect for going to the cinema as a family, with children as capable spectators, able to understand and enjoy an auteur film conceived to speak to each and every one of them in a horizontal way. A film of constructive adventure, one that helps equip children with tools for life, through ideas and emotions they can grasp and make their own.
With "Tanit," we have tried to take a small step towards a paradigm shift in children's cinema – steering it towards a kind of storytelling that does not infantilise, but instead regards young audiences as intelligent and capable viewers.
Thus, we present "Tanit" – a beautiful piece of auteur family cinema.

Subjects:

isolation, women, individual vs society, child parent relationships, superstition, childhood, death, elderly people, pregnancy, environment, fairytale, belonging, school bullying, coming of age, childrens rights