Reviews by Rebecca Naughten

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  10,000 Km (2014)

  Review preview for 10,000 Km

  A warm romantic drama with a real emotional punch.

  Technology rather than love threatens a long-distance relationship.
• 
  15 Years And One Day (2013)

  Review preview for 15 Years And One Day

  Predictably 'worthy' but lacks any real spark.

  After he is suspended from school, a wayward teen is sent to stay with his ex-military grandfather.
• 
  Aces (2014)

  Review preview for Aces

  Aces is a paean to worker solidarity but it is also honest enough about Spain's economic reality to acknowledge that holding each other up is not always enough to endure the precarious times in which we live.

  Abandoned by the father of her child, Neneta returns to her home town and takes a job on a construction site.
• 
  Abdul & Hamza (2015)

  Review preview for Abdul & Hamza

  Well worth seeking out.

  Two Somali immigrants hide near the Serbia-Romania border. Trailed by two sound designers, and armed with a GPS, they are planning their escape.
• 
  Algorithms (2013)

  Review preview for Algorithms

  The boys have their ups and downs around the chessboard but McDonald does not engineer an artificial narrative arc of triumph out of adversity, and the film allows each boy to follow his own path without judgement.

  Documentary about the search for the new generation of blind Indian chess players.
• 
  All Of Me (2014)

  Review preview for All Of Me

  González Villaseñor has given these women a voice of their own and constructed a merited tribute to their determined generosity.

  Every day since 1995, a determined group of women have been using all their resources to feed hundreds of migrants passing through La Patrona, a small village in Central Mexico.
• 
  All The Women (2013)

  Review preview for All The Women

  Eduard Fernández deserves to be better known outside of Spain because he reliably finds a kernel of truth at the heart of a character and is unafraid to show the uglier sides of human nature. He appears in every scene and manages to communicate as much in

  As poor judgement causes one man's life to spiral out of control, he looks for assistance from the significant women in his life.
• 
  Androids Dream (2014)

  Review preview for Androids Dream

  There is little within the film that is obviously futuristic, but you do not need special effects to represent the future - a depressing dystopia is already being lived.

  Benidorm, 2052.
• 
  Archipelagos, Naked Granites (2014)

  Review preview for Archipelagos, Naked Granites

  Hérétakis has an eye for the details of street life and in chronicling the exuberance and angst of a generation who don't see why they should accept the world as it is.

  Athens 2014. The daily life of a country in crisis, the inertia of revolution, the individual issues that confront the political, questions of survival that confront ideals.
• 
  Around The Pink House (1999)

  Review preview for Around The Pink House

  The film is much about the changing nature of Beirut and bearing witness to the past as it is the eviction.

  In post-war Beirut the planned eviction of two refugee families divides the local community.
• 
  Arraianos (2012)

  Review preview for Arraianos

  The layered soundscape is an illustration of how carefully attuned Eloy Enciso's film is to its environment, and it often enables us to hear things before (or sometimes rather than) seeing them.

  A poetic portrait of the people who live in the borderlands between Galicia and Portugal.
• 
  Avant Pétalos Grillados (2007)

  Review preview for Avant Pétalos Grillados

  Although less than 11 minutes long, the film packs in a host of strange and eerie imagery that lingers long in the mind.

  An institution for the disabled, frequented by bodybuilders, is invaded by alien creatures.
• 
  Baratometrajes 2.0 (2014)

  Review preview for Baratometrajes 2.0

  One of the strengths of Baratometrajes 2.0 is the diverse range of voices and perspectives encompassed.

  An examination of the circumstances surrounding the current trend for low-budget productions in Spain.
• 
  Barefoot And In The Kitchen (2013)

  Review preview for Barefoot And In The Kitchen

  Worth seeing to remind ourselves how far Spanish women have come (and what they risk losing once more in Spain's current political climate).

  The evolution of how women have been represented in Spanish cinema, from the 1930s to the present day.
• 
  Bertsolari (2011)

  Review preview for Bertsolari

  A beautiful film that manages to marry word, image, and music in a way that does justice to the poetry conjured up by the people it celebrates.

  A documentary about the art of improvised rhyming verse sung in the Basque tongue.
• 
  Becoming Anita Ekberg (2014)

  Review preview for Becoming Anita Ekberg

  A fascinating and humorous exploration of a star image and its use by savvier directors.

  An exploration of how the construct of “Anita Ekberg” became an internationally famous sex goddess.
• 
  Black (2015)

  Review preview for Black

  This energetic film has a lot to recommend it, not least the way music is juxtaposed with action.

  A Romeo and Juliet-style tale of love between members of rival street gangs and immigrant communities in contemporary Belgium.
• 
  Burden Of Peace (2014)

  Review preview for Burden Of Peace

  What shines through in Burden of Peace is the personal bravery it takes to stick to your ideals and behave morally in the face of state power and implicit violence.

  The four-year term of Guatemala's first female Attorney General, Claudia Paz y Paz, sees her battle against the impunity of organised criminal gangs and the country's former military rulers.
• 
  Carmen (2003)

  Review preview for Carmen

  Vega brings a freshness to the role and offers a modern and decidedly bolshy incarnation of this archetypal Spanish character.

  Spanish retelling of the classic tale of passion and jealousy.
• 
  Chigger Ale (2013)

  Review preview for Chigger Ale

  Beyoncé is one of several out-of-place symbols within the film and although her juxtaposition with Hitler is undoubtedly amusing, she retains her original 'meaning' (empowerment).

  One night a pintpot Hitler clone goes to Fendika, a grassroots tavern in Addis Ababa...
• 
  Closed Curtain (2013)

  Review preview for Closed Curtain

  The more problematic aspects of the film stem from a narrative that cannot sustain the inventiveness of the central conceit and which peters out before the end.

  A writer and his dog retreat to a coastal villa only to have their peace disturbed by two siblings fleeing the police.
• 
  Coast Of Death (2013)

  Review preview for Coast Of Death

  A complex, multi-faceted portrait of the director's home region of Galicia, in north-west Spain, with imagery that is awe-inspiring in the proper sense of the term.

  Documentary about an area of Galicia considered to be the end of the world by the Romans.
• 
  Cría Cuervos (1976)

  Review preview for Cría Cuervos

  Saura's film acquires much of its lasting power from the combination of Torrent's dark-eyed, solemn gaze and its representation of how an impressionable child can have their imagination activated by events they don't fully understand.

  An eight-year old girl believes that she has poisoned the authoritarian father whom she blames for the death of her mother.
• 
  The Creator Of The Jungle (2014)

  Review preview for The Creator Of The Jungle

  Arguably, the film feels the absence of the broader context of Garrell's life.

  The story of a man who built his own jungle by the side of a highway, and how he rebuilt and destroyed it three times.
• 
  Crimson Peak (2015)

  Review preview for Crimson Peak

  An opulent gothic romance in the vein of Jane Eyre or Rebecca rather than a by-the-numbers horror film.

  Gothic romance in which a young American woman becomes ensnared by the machinations of a pair of British siblings.
• 
  Crumbs (2015)

  Review preview for Crumbs

  Llansó's manages to combine the poetic sci-fi of Andrei Tarkovsky with the surrealism and dark humour of his fellow countrymen such as Luis Buñuel, Luis García Berlanga, or more recently Sergio Caballero.

  When the spaceship in the sky begins to reactivate, Candy sets off on a quest across a post- apocalyptic Ethiopian landscape to ask Father Christmas to grant him his heart's desire.
• 
  Dancing In Jaffa (2013)

  Review preview for Dancing In Jaffa

  The story told is generally more interesting than the telling of it.

  A documentary about a man trying to bring Israeli and Palestinian children together through ballroom dancing.
• 
  The Day Of The Beast (1995)

  Review preview for The Day Of The Beast

  The film contains grotesque violence and slapstick humour in a nonetheless affectionate take on the horror genre.

  A Basque priest discovers that the Antichrist is due to be born in Madrid on Christmas Day and sets out to avert the apocalypse with the help of a heavy metal fan and a television psychic.
• 
  Dead Slow Ahead (2015)

  Review preview for Dead Slow Ahead

  The disjuncture between sound and image where humans are concerned is suggestive of the workers being integrated into - or becoming interchangeable with - the workings of the ship.

  Essay film mixing documentary and more abstract explorations onboard a freight ship.
• 
  Death Of A Cyclist (1955)

  Review preview for Death Of A Cyclist

  Both a judgement on a country and the arrival of a new voice in Spanish cinema.

  A tale of guilt, infidelity, and blackmail unfolds after a cyclist is hit and killed by a couple driving back from an illicit rendezvous.
• 
  The Delinquents (1960)

  Review preview for The Delinquents

  The robberies are carried out stylishly in the chiaroscuro shadows of a moving elevator or with sharp timing and economy of movement in the blazing sun of a parking lot.

  A gang of juvenile delinquents pool their resources to pay for one of their number to be put on the bill of a bull-fighting contest.
• 
  Don't Include Me Among You (2015)

  Review preview for Don't Include Me Among You

  Sánchez's patience and openminded approach to someone who resisted conformity has enabled him to create a gentle portrait.

  Documentary about an elderly man admitted to a care home who strives to maintain his independence.
• 
  The Dream (2014)

  Review preview for The Dream

  It is fascinating to watch the development of ideas in the kitchen via the symbiotic interactions of the three brothers.

  A cinematic encounter, examining cookery as art.
• 
  A Dream From The Bath (1988)

  Review preview for A Dream From The Bath

  A thought-provoking 22 minutes.

  Response to the 1985 Films Act.
• 
  Eastern Valley (1937)

  Review preview for Eastern Valley

  Arguably the film is a slight affair in comparison to some other contemporaneous works, although perhaps some of the shortcomings seen by modern eyes are an unavoidable part of filmmaking in that era.

  Documentary detailing the establishment of a co-operative society by unemployed miners in Wales.
• 
  Embrace Of The Serpent (2015)

  Review preview for Embrace Of The Serpent

  Structurally illustrates how the indigenous people don't see time as being a chronological straight line but as multiple realities existing simultaneously.

  The story of the relationship between an Amazonian shaman and two scientists who, decades apart, search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.
• 
  The Executioner (1963)

  Review preview for The Executioner

  The film is laced with both deadpan and sly humour, and is laugh out loud funny.

  A newly-married man must follow his father-in-law into the profession of State executioner in order to keep the family apartment, but he doesn't have the temperament for the job.
• 
  The Fallen Idol (1948)

  Review preview for The Fallen Idol

  The Fallen Idol is overshadowed by Reed and Greene's The Third Man but is in many ways a precursor for the later film, not least in visual terms.

  A butler working in a foreign embassy falls under suspicion when his wife falls to her death and the only witness is a child.
• 
  Falling Star (2014)

  Review preview for Falling Star

  There is plenty to admire here, including some clever juxtaposition of audio and image.

  A hallucinatory look into the brief reign of the Spanish King Amadeo I of Savoy in the early 1870s.
• 
  Favula (2014)

  Review preview for Favula

  The music is an intensely emotional force within the film, and effectively acts as an interpretive guide for the audience in relation to the images of poetic abstraction.

  A cross between Snow White and Cinderella set in a tropical jungle.
• 
  The Female Teachers Of The Republic (2013)

  Review preview for The Female Teachers Of The Republic

  A rather dry telling of what is nonetheless a fascinating story.

  During the Spanish Second Republic a group of women are pioneers in the field of public education.
• 
  Fidelio, Alice's Odyssey (2014)

  Review preview for Fidelio, Alice's Odyssey

  We see events from Alice's perspective, meaning that, unusually, she is positioned more as the desiring subject than the desired object within the narrative.

  Alice replaces a recently deceased mechanic onboard Fidelio, an old freighter, and sets off on a voyage of self-discovery.
• 
  The Fire (2015)

  Review preview for The Fire

  Both Gamboa and Barberini acquit themselves admirably in what is almost a two-hander.

  A 24 hour delay in being able to purchase their first home together causes tensions to rise and Lucía and Marcelo's relationship to begin to unravel.
• 
  The First Film (2015)

  Review preview for The First Film

  A clear passion project that could nonetheless do with some judicious editing to tighten its focus.

  A filmmaker's three-deccade quest to priove that the world's film industry started in Leeds.
• 
  Forbidden Voices (2012)

  Review preview for Forbidden Voices

  Miller's documentary rightly allows these women to represent themselves in their own words.

  How to start a revolution with a laptop.
• 
  Freedom Fighters (1996)

  Review preview for Freedom Fighters

  But the main strength of the film - an apparent labour of love for Aranda - is that it offers a sadly rare onscreen depiction of genuine sisterhood.

  A young nun flees her convent at the outbreak of the Civil War and seeks refuge in a brothel only to be liberated by a group of anarchist women determined to fight on the front line.
• 
  Giraffada (2013)

  Review preview for Giraffada

  A pleasant enough story with much to engage younger members of the family.

  A bond develops between a child and a giraffe.
• 
  The Green Prince (2013)

  Review preview for The Green Prince

  Arguably, the story would benefit from the inclusion of other voices, to verify or expand upon what we're told, but despite this there is no shortage of excitement in the tale.

  How the son of a senior leader of Hamas spied for the Israeli secret services over the course of a decade.
• 
  Hand Gestures (2015)

  Review preview for Hand Gestures

  A small gem of a film and one worth seeking out.

  Documentary charts the work within a Milanese bronze sculpture factory.
• 
  The Happiest Days Of Your Life (1950)

  Review preview for The Happiest Days Of Your Life

  As you would expect with actors of this calibre, there are some delightful sequences where the two leads display their acute comic timing by playing off each other.

  A mix-up at the Ministry sees a respectable girls' school evacuated to the all-male Nutbourne College, much to the horror of their respective headteachers.