14th Spanish Film Festival (2011)

Dates: Sydney 11 - 22 May; Melbourne 12 - 22 May; Brisbane 18 - 29 May;
Perth 25 - 29 May; Adelaide 26 - 29 May; Canberra 26 - 29 May; Auckland 18 - 29 May, 2011
Check local guides for screening venues and times

If perhaps like me you’re enthused about Spanish cinema, the 14th Spanish Film Festival is the place to be for a terrific range of films this year. I’ve been able to check out a small but exciting sample of the wares, oddly enough demonstrating the Gothic is never far away in contemporary Spanish drama. Of course there are numerous romantic and comedy subjects also in the program. But it seems to me Spanish directors do Gothic very well. Violence too remains an element of the current Spanish oeuvre.

Kidnapped
Let me assure you this isn’t the Robert Louis Stevenson yarn. It bears more relationship to Quentin Tarantino and his violent Grand Guignol exercises. Home invasions in Spain are no laughing matter. “Express Kidnap” has become a popular form of break-in and abduction of a family member, then forced to acquire money for the bandits. This is the story of a vicious home intrusion by would be psychopaths, who enjoy hurting their victims as they terrify and rob them.

The teaser is a warning of things to come. To the sound of bird calls the camera opens on a closeup of a bloody head in a plastic bag, first shock comes when the head takes a gasp of air, and then the camera pulls back to reveal the man staggering blindly through trees till he reached a road and is hit by a car. That's before the story proper begins. Jaime (Fernando Cayo), Marta (Ana Wagener), and rebellious teenage daughter Isabel (Manuela Vellés), are a wealthy family just moved into their splendid new house.

They're attempting to have a quiet night at home, when three hooded men smash through the window. With menacing violence they ransack the place, and force Jaime to drive their leader to the nearest ATM machine. Things go badly wrong back at the house, when one of the robbers turns psycho and attacks Isabel. It now has something of the suspense and inhuman violence of Michael Haneke's Funny Games. The last few seconds of screen time as the entrapped family fight back, offers more violent deaths than most full length features. Must be something of a record.

Not for the feint of heart, but a nail biting thriller for those who dare. Shock comes after shock. Isabel crying like a wounded animal reflects a scene from Bergman's The Virgin Spring, elsewhere there’s visual reference to The Shining. Frantic hand held camera gives immediacy with interesting use of split screen. Directed with considerable flair by Miguel Ángel Vivas.

Carancho
Home invasions might be bad news in Spain, but car accidents are worse in Argentina. Every year 8,000 people become road deaths. Starting with a teaser of B&W still photos of a car accident, explained later in the film. Then a low camera watches a man beaten by thugs. Dedicated overworked doctor Luján (Martina Gusman), desperately weary on drugs to keep going, meets an ambulance chasing lawyer Sosa (Ricardo Darin). He's out to make money from accident claims, having very unfriendly tough associates.

A star crossed romance between the two develops against this background of serious traffic accidents and dodgy insurance deals. Violence the underlying theme, scenes in the hospital and at the accidents treated with earthy realism. Ricardo Darin (The Secret In Their Eyes) and Martina Gusman (Lion's Den) make a particularly appealing couple. Intelligent application of wide screen and closeups. Powerful and effective noir thriller, dealing with the aftermath of blinkered corruption from road trauma. Showing a fine grasp of the medium by director Pablo Trapero. Carancho was Argentina's entry for the 2011 Academy Awards.

Julia's Eyes
The beginning having all the overtones of a creepy spookarama, with atmospheric cinematography and lighting, this film shifts gears into a Hitchcock like thriller. Sara a blind girl tries to commit suicide and succeeds with unwanted help from a shadowy figure. Her sister Julia (Belén Rueda), also suffering from an eye condition which will result in blindness, suspects fowl play. Without her skeptical husband's (Lluís Homar) approval, she starts on her own investigation of her sister's death.

Julia sets out to follow the trail of the illusive invisible man, meeting on the way weird neighbours, a blind woman Mrs. Soledad (Julia Gutiérrez Caba) in a houseful of cats (remember Let The Right One In), and Blasco (Boris Ruiz) a Peter Lorre type, with his strange daughter. Highlights include a wonderfully visual chase along a long eerie corridor to clever lighting, and an unnerving close shot which will remind cinema buffs of Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou. I'm pleased to see lovely Julia sheds her high heels after a couple of rapid chases. Sophisticated and accomplished it will hold you till the last frame. Guillermo del Toro as producer shows his hand, with taught direction by Guillem Morales.

The Last Circus
You just know you're in for something special from the opening credit montage and its striking photos, including political figures juxtaposed with screen monsters. The film almost defies description, a remarkable surrealistic experience, this melancholy nightmare in the twilight zone, often drawing on images from the silent era. We're introduced to a frantic world of grotesque beauty, a cinema of imagination recalling Bunuel, Fellini, Bergman, and David Lynch. On this occasion the writer/director being talented Álex de la Iglesia (The Oxford Murders).

Commencing with two circus clowns doing their fun routine to enthused children. Rudely interrupted by a fanatic officer dragging one of the clowns off to fight in the Spanish civil war. We're thrown into the conflict headfirst, kicking and screaming. The clown's son Javier (Carlos Areces) never having a childhood as his father was taken from him, becomes a sad clown unable to bring smiles to children. In the circus Javier falls for beautiful acrobat Natalia (Carolina Bang), but she belongs to Sergio (Antonio de la Torre) the funny clown, who gets all the laughs. He's also an abusive bully. So the rivalry between the clowns over Natalie becomes the crux of this tragic comedy. Similar to the plot of Water for Elephants treated in a totally different manner.

The film works on several levels with political implications, also having cinematic references to Frankenstein and Phantom of the Opera. The back-lighting of many scenes imitates the spotlight of circus ring, giving a theatrical atmosphere to the action. Carlos Areces exceptional as the sad clown, equally Antonio de la Torre and the lithe Carolina Bang are memorable characters. Guaranteed to keep you on edge until the grand operatic conclusion. The most innovative and extraordinary film I've viewed this year. Rightly so, The Last Circus opens the Festival.

Black Bread
Directed by Agusti Villaronga, a coming of age story, again set against the bleak aftermath of the Spanish civil war. Opening with a firecracker sequence that may shock you with its brutality, horse and wagon plunging over a cliff in horrific detail. Andrie (Francesc Colomer), a young Catalan boy stumbles upon the results of this murder, while the village authorities lead by the sadistic Mayor (Sergi Lopez) suspect his father of committing the crime. Seeking to find the real culprit and haunted by a nightmare, Andrie comes to realize his father might be guilty. With his worldly cousin Nuria he might escape the village, yet that isn't to be his fate.

Francesc Colomer with haunted eyes, Marina Comas as sensual Nuria, and particularly Nora Navas the harassed mother, put in sterling performances. Sergi Lopez shows up in a similar role to Pan's Labyrinth, if slightly toned down. Period and atmosphere well captured, as the factory with ancient looms, all viewed in sweeping cinematography complimenting the action often using reciprocal camera movement.

Children in a far off country in the grip of civil war also makes strong impression.

The Colours of the Mountain, set in Colombia shows the plight of a poor group of farmers as the conflict tears their remote village and life apart. A touching story, superbly told from the children's viewpoint by director Carlos Cesar Arbeláez. Poignant, the children are memorable, from the little albino lad Poca Luz to the main character young Manuel, played beautifully by Hernán Mauricio Ocampo.

John Bale