The Mies Pavilion hosts open-air cinema this summer

The event has something of a hidden plan about it, even though the building is one of the city’s icons. It’s not every day you can sit in the Mies Pavilion as night falls to watch a film surrounded by marble, glass, water, and urban silence, far from the usual commercial cinema format.

This year, the programme revolves around Barcelona and the many ways of looking at it. The three selected films travel through different eras, neighbourhoods, and realities: the vanished city of Somorrostro, Barcelona in the nineties, and a more recent look at the everyday lives of those who work door to door.

The series will kick off on 6 July at 21:30 with “Los Tarantos”, by Francesc Rovira-Beleta. The film, loosely inspired by “Romeo y Julieta” and “Bodas de sangre”, revives the memory of Gitano Barcelona and the old Somorrostro neighbourhood, with the unforgettable presence of Carmen Amaya.

The screening will feature an introduction by the director’s children, adding a special layer to the event. It’s not just about watching a historic film, but about returning to a Barcelona that no longer exists physically, yet remains part of the city’s cultural memory.

The second date will be on 3 August, also at 21:30, with “Costa Brava (Family Album)”. Presented by Marta Balletbò-Coll y Celia Marín, the film tells the story of the beginning of a relationship between Anna, a tour guide with artistic ambitions, and Montserrat, an American engineer, set between Barcelona and the Costa Brava.

The film offers an intimate, luminous, and somewhat nostalgic view of the nineties, with humour, desire, and Mediterranean landscapes. In the context of the series, it serves as a way of seeing the city through its affections, its getaways, and its ties to the coast.

The programme will close on 7 September at 21:00 with “Seis días corrientes”, by Neus Ballús. The film delves into the routine of three real plumbers as they visit homes, courtyards, stairways, and streets, showing a less monumental and much more familiar Barcelona.

This final screening connects especially well with the idea of the series: to look at the city from places that usually go unnoticed. Not the postcard Barcelona, but the one that appears behind a shutter, in a home repair, or in a brief conversation between neighbours.

Tickets are available online and it’s best to buy them in advance. The price, two euros, makes the plan very accessible, but the limited capacity of the Pavilion may leave out those who wait too long.

The Mies Pavilion was built for the 1929 International Exposition and has become a global reference in modern architecture. Its location next to Montjuïc, between the Fuente Mágica and the area’s major cultural venues, makes it a particularly powerful setting for watching films about Barcelona.

Pantalla Pavelló offers more than just three summer screenings. It’s an invitation to see the city at a different pace: to sit outdoors, enter an exceptional building, and discover how cinema also preserves neighbourhoods, memories, and ways of life that Barcelona doesn’t always show at first glance.