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Festival coverage

Viva

2007

Now in its 13th year, ¡Viva! celebrates the best in Spanish and Latin American cinema. This years programme is packed with great films including Fabián Bielinsky's final movie, the noir thriller The Aura and Hitchcockian thriller The Uncertain Guest. This year the festival has also teamed up with Soda Pictures to release a selection of the films - past and present on DVD. The festival runs at Manchester Cornerhouse cinema from March 15 to 25, before touring the country.

View complete schedule

Other years (10)

Latest reviews

  • Dark Blue Almost Black
    Review preview for Dark Blue Almost Black

    The plotline’s complexity is matched by the depth of the issues explored, with the cast uniformly coming up trumps.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    Coming-of-age drama about a janitor striving to turn his dreams into reality.
  • Un Franco, 14 Pesetas
    Review preview for Un Franco, 14 Pesetas

    Although, occasionally resorting to stereotypes and cliche to find a laugh, by and large Iglesias script is intelligent and witty.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    Gentle comedy drama - a love song to migrant workers everywhere.
  • Salvador (Puig Antich)
    Review preview for Salvador (Puig Antich)

    Where we should be caught up in the emotion of a man staring death in the face, we are, instead, marvelling at the sudden clunky switch from Seventies crime thriller posturings to run-of-the-mill prison melodrama.

    Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
    Biopic of a Catalan anarchist.
  • En La Cama
    Review preview for En La Cama

    Lewin and Valenzuela, while undoubtedly very attractive, are ridiculously untouched by their continual romping.

    Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
    A couple's one night stand in a motel room.
  • The Backwoods
    Review preview for The Backwoods

    It is as though all the moral ambiguity and mean-spiritedness of 1970s cinema had never died.

    Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
    A British couple's Spanish holiday turns to horror after a disturbing discovery on a hunting trip.
  • El Violin
    Review preview for El Violin

    Scores heavily as a mood-driven character exploration of the nature of familial love, duty, conflict and its impact on the innocent.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    An old violinist tries to help his son's guerrilla faction.
  • Exterminating Angel
    Review preview for Exterminating Angel

    This odd story is reminiscent of a Beckett play in its compelling sinisterness.

    Andrea Mullaney · 4 out of 5
    The dinner party from hell.
  • Buenos Aires, 1977
    Review preview for Buenos Aires, 1977

    Buenos Aires, 1977 is harrowing at times, terrifying at others.

    Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
    A goalkeeper kidnapped and tortured by the Argentinian secret police becomes determined to escape.
  • Madeinusa
    Review preview for Madeinusa

    A coming of age drama with a novel twist.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    The festival of the Little Virgins in a Peruvian village offers one teenager an escape route.
  • The Uncertain Guest
    Review preview for The Uncertain Guest

    The kind of debut feature that encourages you to believe that cinema does have a future.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 4.5 out of 5
    A man in an isolated house admits a stranger, then doesn't know whether or not he's gone.

A–Z of Viva 2007 reviews