Augusto Lives
Directed by Javi Pitarch
Spain · 2025 · 8 min · Social issues; Low budget; Country Life; Archive footage; Death; Other; Politics; Satire
Submitted to RTV International Film Festival 2026Synopsis
Augusto Vive is a mockumentary about a small Spanish village whose mayor suddenly dies but continues to govern because no one processed his death. Afraid of bureaucracy, the village accepts being led by a ghost.
About the film
In Vilar de Canes, life goes on with the usual calm of the rural world… until its mayor, Don Augusto, suddenly dies during an official ceremony. However, his death is never properly recorded due to a series of delays, absurd paperwork, and administrative negligence. Since his death is not officially registered in the system, Don Augusto continues to be listed as the acting mayor. His salary keeps being collected. Decisions keep being signed. And, shortly afterward, Augusto himself returns in ghost form, determined to continue governing as always. While the administration is unable to offer a solution—citing articles, pending reports, and unanswered emails—the people face an unusual choice: regularize the situation and hold elections, or democratically accept a government from beyond the grave. Augusto Vive is a political satire in the form of a mockumentary that portrays, with dark humor and social realism, bureaucratic inertia, institutional passivity, and the ease with which the absurd can become the norm when no one wants to fill out the proper form.
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RTV International Film Festival — Inaugural Online Edition · 2026