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“Lifeguards, luxury hotels from early XXth Century, mermaids, sea animals and sand castles gather in this labyrinthine essay. A “documentary” about balnearios, Argentine bath resorts and the idea of cities dedicated exclusively to idleness, empty along the winter months and crowded in the summer.”Read More »
Synopsis
Miss Adela Castro (José Luis López Vázquez in a superb performance),a mature lady from the provincial Spanish bourgeoisie, has spent her life in solitude, sewing, playing the piano, attending charity meetings at the local church and meditating on her forced spinsterhood. Her partially unacknowledged attraction to females, together with her lack of desire for her fiance drives Adela to her confessor and then to a doctor. The diagnosis is unambiguous: she is a man. Adela, now Juan, is then forced to confront both a prejudiced society and himself. Jaime Armiñán directed My Dearest Señorita in a context of profound social transition in Spain. Read More »
In Oggun, Gloria relates the patakin or mythical story of Oggun, the tireless warrior who, enamored of his mother, decided as punishment to imprison himself in the mountains: only Ochun, goddess of love, succeeded in captivating him when she let fall a few drops of honey on the lips of the god of metal, war, progress, and civilization. This film of 52 minutes includes chants, dances, a “tambor” (Yoruba religious ceremony with the bata drums), and the experiences of Ros, who not only made his the beauty of the African chants, but had the opportunity to sing them in trips throughout the world. The noted “apwong” works incessantly to preserve the lore and transmit it to the younger generations.Read More »
A voyage into the labyrinthic memories of a Uitoto man, who worked for the drug Lords in the Colombian Amazon back in the 80s. Following his path between the forest and the ruin of a Narco’s mansion imitating the Carrington mansion in the soap opera Dynasty, the film unfolds the hallucinatory account of a near-death experience.Read More »
Synopsis:
Gabriel has been separated for four years now. Since then his 8 year old daughter is the center of his life. Completely avoiding getting involved in a new romantic relationship, Gabriel focus all his energy in his daughter and work. This plan gets spoiled when Vicky, a platonic love from his adolescence, now a beautiful and independent woman appears in his life. When romance is about to start, she puts one condition: She would never get involved with a man with children. She just does not want children in her life. When Gabriel is confronted with this, he says he has no children. From that moment on his life becomes a torment, playing every trick at hand in order to hide his child and belongings from Vicky in every date.Read More »
Laida Lertxundi is a Spanish filmmaker
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“I was really into music and photography and art in general growing up. Not really so much into film. I wasn’t drawn to narrative film, and I hadn’t seen any other kind growing up in the Basque Country.”- Laida LertxundiRead More »
The spirit, hopes, and failures of a troupe of itinerant performers in the 1950s create a poignant, humorous leitmotif in this drama by Fernando Fernan-Gomez. The story of the wandering players is told in flashbacks, as Carlos Galvan (Jose M. Sacristan) reminisces about the good times while under therapy with a psychiatrist in a senior citizens’ home. Carlos and his lover Juanita (Laura del Sol), his teenage son, his father, and a few other actors try to eke out a living by putting on shows in small towns and villages. No one has very much money, but life is lived to the hilt, and Carlos himself has some pretty tall tales.Read More »
Tierra (Earth, Julio Medem, 1996) opens with a hypnotic journey through space, as the camera soars through the ethereal atmosphere, descending towards an agricultural area, then focusing in on a lone traveler who is having a motivational conversation with himself. A remote village has been infested with woodlice, imparting an earthy taste to the locally produced wine. An exterminator, a self-described “complex” man named Ángel (Carmelo Gómez), has been hired by the town mayor to fumigate the region. Ángel’s inner voice, the figurative angel of his subconscious who has died but continues to exist (and interject opinions) within his corporal self, believes that he has been sent down to earth for a divine mission.Read More »
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Tula, the titular aunt is raising the children of her recently-deceased sister, alongside her brother-in-law Ramiro. She is austere and somewhat bossy, but the kids accept her as the replacement for their mother. Ramiro struggles being cooped up with her in their chaste relationship -he suggests they become man and wife, scandalizing Tula. But amid an atmosphere of Catholic hypocrisy -her priest recommends she marries Ramiro and never deems to criticize his unwanted advances to her- and unspoken patriarchy (her female peers all see marriage as their goal in life) she begins to wilt -only, too slowly for the lusty Ramiro, who matter-of-factly precipitates a devastating conclusion to their arrangement.Read More »