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Viva · 2010

Viva 2010

Features

Carefully selected films from the best of Spanish language cinema.

Programme

16 films · 7 reviews

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Bad Day to go Fishing (Mal día para pescar)

(Country: Spain, Uruguay; Year: 2009; Director: Álvaro Brechner; Writer: Álvaro Brechner, Juan Carlos Onetti, Gary Piquer; Stars: Gary Piquer, Jouko Ahola, Antonella Costa, César Troncoso, Bruno Aldecosea, Alfonso Tort, Jorge Temponi, Jenny Goldstein, Ignacio Cawen, Luis Lage, Enrique Vidal, Lucía Fernandez)

El Paraíso Travel (Paraiso Travel)

Illegal immigrant couple travel to New York, and discover dark things about themselves.

(Country: US, Colombia; Year: 2008; Director: Simon Brand; Writer: Jorge Franco Ramos, Juan Rendón; Stars: Angelica Blandon, Pedro Capo, Raúl Castillo, Aldemar Correa, Margarita Rosa de Francisco, Ana de la Reguera, Germán Jaramillo, John Leguizamo, Eli Massillon, Chiko Mendez, Edward Steven Mesa, Luis Fernando Munera, Jesús Ochoa, Loukas Papas, Panama Redd) , Official site

Gigante

Review preview for Gigante

Engagement with this film requires patience and hinges on the performance of Camandule.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A store security guard becomes obssessed with a cleaner.

(Country: Uruguay, Argentina, Germany, Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Adrián Biniez; Writer: Adrián Biniez; Stars: Horacio Camandule, Leonor Svarcas)

Full review

The Good News (La buena nueva)

Miguel is named parish priest of a socialist village coinciding with the outbreak of Civil War in 1936. Right from the genesis of the uprising, the nationals take over the village and the shootings begin. In his struggle to defend the victims, Miguel clashes with the ecclesiastic and military hierarchy, putting his own life on the line.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Helena Taberna; Writer: Andrés Martorell, Helena Taberna; Stars: Susana Abaituna Gómez, Gorka Aguinagalde, Magdalena Aizpurua, Joseba Apaolaza, Klara Badiola, Bárbara Goenaga, Iñake Irastorza, Loquillo, Jabier Muguruza, Erik Probanza, Fernando Ruiz, Rodrigo Sáenz de Heredia, Maribel Salas, Mercedes Sampietro, Mikel Tello)

Just Walking (Sólo quiero caminar)

Review preview for Just Walking

A stylish femme-thriller with good twists and turns.

Darren Amner · 3.5 out of 5
An ex-con plans to get her own back on her thug of a husband by ripping him off.

(Country: Spain, Mexico; Year: 2008; Director: Agustín Díaz Yanes; Writer: Agustín Díaz Yanes; Stars: Diego Luna, Victoria Abril, Ariadna Gil, Pilar López de Ayala, Elena Anaya, José María Yazpik, Antoñete, Carlos Bardem, Octavio Castro, Tiley Chao)

Full review

Lion's Den (Leonera)

Review preview for Lion's Den

The strength of Pablo Trapero's sumptuous film, Argentina's Palme D'Or nominee, is the depth and breadth of its considerations.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Waking covered in blood in an apartment where one man is dead and another badly injured, with little memory and no alibi, a pregnant woman must learn to deal with imprisonment.

(Country: Argentina, South Korea, Brazil; Year: 2008; Director: Pablo Trapero; Writer: Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui, Santiago Mitre, Pablo Trapero; Stars: Martina Gusman, Elli Medeiros, Rodrigo Santoro, Laura García, Tomás Plotinsky) , Official site

Full review

Little Indi (Petit indi)

Review preview for Little Indi

Recha depicts a hardscrabble existence but finds fleeting moments of beauty, affection, and pleasure by focussing on the things that truly matter to Arnau.

Rebecca Naughten · 4 out of 5
Living on the outskirts of Barcelona, Arnau raises a menagerie of songbirds and tries to accumulate the funds to hire a lawyer for his imprisoned mother.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Marc Recha; Writer: Nadine Lamari, Marc Recha; Stars: Marc Soto, Eulàlia Ramon, Sergi López, Eduardo Noriega, Pere Subirana)

Full review

Lovely Loneliness (Amorosa Soledad)

Inés Efron gives a captivating performance as Soledad, an artistic young hypochondriac whose split from her boyfriend sends her into a spin. Soledad gains support from her friends and a chance encounter in a café provides an opportunity for her to find love once more.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2008; Director: Martín Carranza, Victoria Galardi; Writer: Victoria Galardi; Stars: Inés Efron, Nicolás Pauls, Fabián Vena, Monica Gonzaga, Ricardo Darín, Diego Velázquez, Santiago Giralt, Bruna Castro) , Official site

The Milk Of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada)

Review preview for The Milk Of Sorrow

Although the layers of symbolism and allegory certainly add to the depth of the film's resonance, those who consider it purely as a more simply magic realist-inflected coming of age tale are unlikely to be disappointed either.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Examination of Peru's dark history refracted through the story of a woman struck with an illness from her mother's breast milk.

(Country: Spain, Peru; Year: 2008; Director: Claudia Llosa; Writer: Claudia Llosa; Stars: Magaly Solier, Susi Sànchez, Efraín Solís, Marino Ballón, Delci Heredia)

Full review See: Claudia Llosa interview about The Milk Of Sorrow

The Naked Years (Los Años Desnudos: Clasificada 'S')

Sensitive portrait of Spanish pornography actresses in post-Franco's Spain.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Dunia Ayaso, Félix Sabroso; Writer: Dunia Ayaso, Félix Sabroso; Stars: Candela Peña, Goya Toledo, Mar Flores, Luis Zahera, Antonio de la Torre, Tomás Álvarez, Jose Luis Ayuso, Paca Barrera, Ángel Burgos, Jorge Calvo, Jose Casasús, Susana Estrada, Malena Gutiérrez, Carmen Losa, Jorge Monje)

Parque Vía

A Mexican caretaker faces the challenge of leaving the security of the only home he has known for decades.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2008; Director: Enrique Rivero; Writer: Enrique Rivero; Stars: Nolberto Coria, Nancy Orozco, Tesalia Huerta, Celina Altamirano, Oscar Daniel Cabrera, Ericka Castillo, José Luis Córdova, Liliana Judith Cortés, Gerardo Cuevas, Eduardo de la Vega)

Plan B

Review preview for Plan B

Despite being slightly reductive, this low budget Argentinean film is still largely a sweet and honest portrayal of two men falling in love.

Dan Hooper · 3 out of 5
When a man is dumped by his girlfriend, he determines to win her back... even if he has to get her new man out of the way.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2009; Director: Marco Berger; Writer: Marco Berger; Stars: Manuel Vignau, Lucas Ferraro, Mercedes Quinteros)

Full review

Return To Hansala (Retorno a Hansala)

In the early years of this decade, the corpses of eleven young Moroccan immigrants attempting to cross the Strait in a small launch are found strewn across the Rota beaches. The clothes they were wearing serve to establish that all eleven boys came from the same tiny village, Anísala. Retorno a Hansala endeavours to recreate the event seen from the eyes of Martín, owner of a funeral parlour who intends to make money from the occurrence, and Leila, one of the dead boy’s sisters.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Chus Gutiérrez; Writer: Chus Gutiérrez, Juan Carlos Rubio; Stars: El Hussein Aghazaff, Miguel Alcíbar, Fatima Andah, Adam Bounnouacha, Antonio Dechent, María del Águila, Antonio de la Torre, Cuca Escribano, José Luis García Pérez, Farah Hamed, Sebastián Haro, Aida Salhi, César Vea)

The Shame (La vergüenza)

Review preview for The Shame

Planell has been working as a writer on Spanish television for several years, so it is little surprise that this story feels as though it could just as easily be an episode in an ongoing soap opera as the basis for a feature film.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A couple on the brink of adoption, find themselves in crisis.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: David Planell; Writer: David Planell; Stars: Natalia Mateo, Alberto San Juan, Norma Martínez, Brandon Alexander Lastra Cobos)

Full review

Teo's Journey (El viaje de Teo)

8-year old boy goes in search of his missing father - separated at the Mexico-US border

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2008; Director: Walter Doehner; Writer: Walter Doehner, Leo Eduardo Mendoza, Silvana Zuanetti; Stars: Damián Alcázar, Erick Cañete, Joaquín Cosio, Dagoberto Gama, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Dolores Heredia, Enoc Leaño, Andrés Márquez, Raúl Méndez, Cristina Michaus, Silverio Palacios, Arcelia Ramírez)

The Window (La Ventana)

Antonio is an eighty-year-old Patagonian writer who is coming to the end of his life. The film sees him make the preparations for his son’s final visit and Antonio wants everything to be perfect. As Antonio looks out of his window, watching and waiting, he can’t resist one last walk outside.

(Country: Argentina, Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Carlos Sorin; Writer: Carlos Sorin; Stars: Antonio Larreta, María del Carmen Jiménez, Emilse Roldán, Roberto Rovira, Jorge Díez, Carla Peterson, Alberto Ledesma, Luis Luque, Arturo Goetz, Marina Glezer, Noemí Frenkel)