Viva

Latest reviews

• 
  Birds Of Passage

  Review preview for Birds Of Passage

  The rituals set in motion at the start, also tune us into the wavelength of portent, so that a heron's feet on a rug or the sound of locusts carry at least as much threat as the site of a loaded gun.

  Story of a family who become involved with the drugs trade.
• 
  Miriam Lies

  Review preview for Miriam Lies

  Both Rodriguez and Rohana deliver delicate, nuanced performances in a story that revolves in large part around friendship.

  Shy girl Miriam is waiting to celebrate her 15th birthday and she wants to invite her guy. So far they’ve only chatted online, and the anticipated blind date only complicates things.
• 
  Jean-François And The Meaning Of Life

  Review preview for Jean-François And The Meaning Of Life

  Megias acquits himself well, presenting us with a complex character whose emotions run deep.

  A 12-year-old existentialist kid runs away from home to meet his favourite philosopher, Albert Camus, not knowing he has been dead for 50 years. On his way he finds love and rejection for the first time in his life.
• 
  Ana De Día

  Review preview for Ana De Día

  The stage begins to feel like the only space where anyone is honest, even when miming to somebody else's voice.

  The appearance of a double who starts living her life and fulfilling all of her obligations allows a frustrated woman to adopt total anonymity for the very first time and escape the tight regulations that have constrained her life.
• 
  Yuli

  Review preview for Yuli

  It's in dance that the film's strength lies, illustrating, through choreography, Acosta's more abstract - and more negative - emotions, including fear, loneliness and lust.

  The true story of Carlos Acosta, a black Cuban dancer who rose from an impoverished childhood to find international acclaim as a ballet dancer with London's Royal Ballet.
• 
  Rojo

  Review preview for Rojo

  The writer/director casts his net wide, taking inspiration from auteurs like John Boorman and Sam Peckinpah through to freeze-frame moments that could slot straight into TV detective dramas of the time.

  Violence is sparked on the eve of Argentina's dictatorship.
• 
  Retablo

  Review preview for Retablo

  It's difficult to express just what a bold piece of work this film is.

  A teenage boy finds his world turned upside down when he learns a secret about his beloved father.
• 
  The Silence Of Others

  Review preview for The Silence Of Others

  The film cuts every so often to one of the few monuments honouring the victims of Franco’s regime; faceless statues pierced with bullet holes on a deserted mountain side. The Silence Of Others puts real faces to these figures.

  The struggle against the amnesty law in Spain for those who committed atrocities under the rule of General Franco.
• 
  The Angel

  Review preview for The Angel

  It should come as no surprise, given the kitsch and extravagant props and costumes, that the film has been co-produced by Pedro Almodovar and his brother Augustin.

  The story of a real life teenage serial killer in Argentina.
• 
  Alanis

  Review preview for Alanis

  While the odds are, no doubt, stacked against her, Berneri gives Alanis a real sense of agency.

  An evicted sex worker attempts to get back on her feet with her young son.

A–Z of Viva 2019 reviews →

Features

• You only live twice
  Andrea Jaurrieta on doubles, performance and reinventing the self in Ana De Día
• Life in movement
  Icíar Bollaín and Paul Laverty on bringing Carlos Acosta's biopic Yuli to the screen