S a i h & a i A e i a p n s L t nFilmm Festivalr c n March 22nd - April 1st, 2007

Embajada de España Spanish & Latin American Film Festival

Introduction

, our annual festival of Spanish and Latin American cinema, has been¡Viva! expanded this year to provide a broader picture of the range of work being produced in the Spanish-speaking world. The festival is mounted in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes in Dublin, and it originated at The Cornerhouse in Manchester, in the hands of their tireless programmer Linda Pariser.

This year’s bigger event includes more Latin American films than in previous years, reflecting the growing importance of work from countries such as Argentina, Mexico and Chile. Our opening film, Francisco Vargas’s The Violin/El violín, was one of the surprise discoveries at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Beautifully shot in black and white, it’s a surprisingly successful mixture of music and politics, in which the remarkable Don Ángel Tavira plays an ageing and seemingly harmless musician who turns out to be involved in the Mexican peasant guerrilla movement of the 1970s.

Other highlights from Latin America include The Aura/El aura, a mature and so- phisticated thriller from Nine Queens director Fabián Bielinsky, who died last year; Pablo Trapero’s Born and Bred/Nacido y criado; and Carlos Sorín’s The Road to San Diego/El camino de San Diego, a delightfully offbeat follow-up to Bombón el perro.

From Spain, there are major new films from Álex de la Iglesia (Ferpect Crime/Cri- men ferpecto), Agustín Díaz Yanes (the historical epic Alatriste, our closing film) and Carlos Iglesias (Crossing Borders/Un franco, 14 pesetas). The discovery from Spain this year is Jorge Sánchez-Caberzudo’s superb thriller The Night of the Sunflowers/La no- che de los girasoles.

Plenty to enjoy, then, and those who are up for a challenge might care to check out Albert Serra’s take on Don Quixote, Honour of the Knights/Honor de cavallería or the rarely seen El Topo, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s visually striking and totally unhinged cult classic.

As well as screening in Dublin, festival highlights will tour onto Galway and Cork.

How to book tickets Bookings for all of these films can be made online at www.irishfilm.ie or by calling our box office at 01-6793477, or by coming to the IFI cinema in person. Tickets are 10 euro for all films. 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival

Screening Schedule

thursday 22nd March 8.30 pm The Violin (El violín) friday 23rd March 6.10 pm The Aura (El aura)

saturday 2.00 pm Crossing Borders (Un franco, 14 pesetas) 24th March 3.10 pm The Uncertain Guest (El habitante incierto) 6.40 pm Born and Bred (Nacido y criado) sunday 1.30 pm The 2 Sides of the Bed (Los 2 lados de la cama) 25th March 2.00 pm The Backwood (Bosque de sombras) 3.30 pm The Education of Fairies (La educación de hadas) 6.30 pm Tapas monday 26th March 6.30 pm Honour of The Knights (Honor de cavalleria)

tuesday 27th March 6.40 pm The Night of the Sunflowers (La noche de los girasoles)

wednesday 28th March 6.20 pm Habana Blues

thursday 29th March 6.40 pm Buenos Aires 1977 (Crónica de una fuga)

friday 30th March 6.30 pm Princesses (Princesas) 9.00 pm Remake saturday 1.45 pm El Topo 31th March 6.30 pm The Road to San Diego (El camino de San Diego) 9.00 pm In Bed (En la cama) sunday 1.30 pm Suely in the Sky (O Céu de Suely) 1st April 6.00 pm Ferpect Crime (Crimen ferpecto) 8.00 pm Alatriste The Violin El violín The Aura Crossing Mexico, 2006. El aura Subtitled. Black and white. Borders Dolby Digital Stereo. 98 min Argentina-Spain-France, 2006. Un franco, 14 pesetas Subtitled. Colour. Anamorphic Director: Francesco Vargas Quevedo Dolby Digital Stereo. 134 min Spain, 2006. th Subtitled. Colour. Thursday 22 March/8.30pm Dolby Digital Stereo. 105 min Director: Fabián Bielinsky The old saying that music can soothe Friday 23th March/6.10pm Director: Carlos Iglesias the savage beast is both celebrated Saturday 24th March/2.00pm and challenged in The Violin, the An engrossing thriller from the late finely crafted writing-directing début Fabián Bielinsky, director of 2001’s Combining gentle comedy and social of Mexican film-maker Francisco Nine Queens, The Aura is a quieter, criticism into an enjoyable and sur- Vargas Quevedo. This stark but ab- richer and better-looking piece that prisingly spiky whole, Carlos Iglesias’s sorbing drama follows an aging musi- handles it multiple manipulations début as a director is a traditional cian, beautifully played by Don Ángel with the maturity the earlier picture heart-warmer with enough contem- Tavira, who fiddles his way into the sometimes lacked. porary edge to keep it from looking front lines of Mexico’s peasant revolts old-fashioned. It’s built around the during the 1970s. Forty-something taxidermist fascinating true-life journey of two Espinosa (a career-best perform- luckless Spaniards to Switzerland in The Violin gets its ugliest moment ance from Ricardo Darín) dreams search of work. out of the way at the outset—a brutal of heists and perfect crimes and scene in which military officials In Franco’s Madrid of 1960, mechanic then gets pulled into the real thing. interrogate and then torture a hand- Martín (Iglesias) and his family live Espinosa has a seemingly unfulfilling ful of tied-up villagers. The action in a miserable basement flat. When life. That helps spur his decision to segues abruptly to elderly farmer Don he loses his job, a victim of Spain’s go on a hunting holiday in southern Plutarco (Tavira), son Genaro (Gerardo economic restructuring, Martín Argentina with cynical friend Sontag Taracena) and grandson Lucio (Mario decides, along with his best friend (Anejandro Awada). The two have Garibaldi), who scrape together a Marcos ( Javier Gutiérrez), to head for to spend their time in a seedy little living as traveling musicians by day Switzerland, where a franc is worth forest lodge run by the shady looking (Plutarco plays the violin, Genaro the 14 pesetas. They arrive in an almost Dietrich (Manuel Rodal) and his guitar). By night, they secretly amass impossibly picturesque Swiss town battered-looking wife. The grouchy resources for the peasant guerrilla and are quickly confronted by what pals argue, Sontag leaves, and the movement stirring in the Guerrero for them are the mysterious habits taxidermist, a neophyte hunting alone, region, intent on overthrowing the of the locals. Just as they seem to be accidentally shoots and kills Dietrich country’s cruel regime. settling in, their families arrive, and in the woods. Then he stumbles on the process of assimilation begins all Dietrich’s plan for a real-life robbery The non-professional cast is uniform- over again. ly strong, but Tavira inspires real af- and becomes involved with Dietrich’s fection with his enormously dignified, sinister associates. Echoes of Deliver- Comedies about Spaniards feeling mildly dyspeptic characterisation. ance hover in the air as Espinosa’s out of their depth in foreign counties Tavira’s creation of a mischievously daydream develops into a nightmare. abound, but the script here avoids heroic figure disguised as a harm- most of the clichés and a darker final less-looking old man is the tale’s chief Great movie thrillers thrive on reel enriches everything that precedes it. satisfaction.—Justin Chang/‘Variety’. character, atmosphere, style and clever twists; The Aura has all four. THE MEXICAN EMBASSY IN DUBLIN HAVE KINDLY ASSISTED WITH THIS EVENT.

2 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival The 2 Sides Born of the Bed Los 2 lados de la cama The and Bred Nacido y criado Spain, 2006. Uncertain Guest Subtitled. Colour. Anamorphic. El habitante incierto Argentina-Italy, 2006. Dolby Digital Stereo. 112 min Subtitled. Colour. Spain, 2004. Dolby Digital Stereo. 100 min Director: Emilio Martínez-Lázaro Subtitled.Colour. Sunday 25th March/1.30pm Dolby Stereo. 110 min. Director: Pablo Trapero Saturday 24th March/6.40pm Director: Guillem Morales A more enjoyable follow-up to the th 2003 hit The Other Side of the Bed, this Saturday 24 March/3.10pm With Born and Bred, Argentine direc- musical comedy reprises the earlier tor Pablo Trapero displays the same A Hitchcock-flavoured tale of film’s lively mix of frothy pop and knack for intimate storytelling that paranoia, hysteria and isolation, this romantic wrangling, using mostly the made his Rolling Family so moving, atmospheric directorial début by same gang of endearing protagonists. but Born and Bred is much darker. It director Guillem Morales offers a Javier (Ernesto Alterio), best friend taps into elemental emotions—fear stylish twist on the traditional domes- Pedro (Giullermo Toledo) and Javier’s of death, the terror of losing those we tic nightmare scenario. girlfriend Marta (Verónica Sánchez) love most and the pain of that loss— are in a restaurant where Raquel while speaking in a language that is Having broken up with his girlfriend (Lucía Jiménez), Pedro’s partner, distinctive to its talented director. Vera (Mónica López), shy architect is singing. Javier and Marta are to Stunningly photographed, expansive Félix (Andoni Gracia) lives alone in be married the next day, but Marta vistas make this film a powerful visual a vast home of his own design. By is getting cold feet. When she and experience, while rich performances night, Félix’s dreams are of isolation Raquel head to the toilet to have sex give it tremendous soul. and vague menace. Then, unexpect- together, we understand why. Next edly, a visitor turns up at the door morning, Marta leaves Javier standing Santiago (Guillermo Pfening) is an asking to make an urgent phone call. on the church steps, Raquel leaves interior designer who runs a very suc- After some hesitation, Félix lets him Pedro, and the rest of the film largely cessful business with his wife, Milli in—but almost immediately the man details the males’ too-slow realisation (Martina Gusman). They lead a seem- disappears without a trace. Soon, of the truth. ingly charmed but predictable life there are strange noises throughout with their daughter—until their tran- the building, traces of another’s Superior fare by the standards of quillity is shattered by a devastating presence. Is the intruder still inside? Spanish comedy, The 2 Sides of the accident. After the tragedy, Santiago Could he be living somewhere within Bed has a more substantial script and relocates to the frozen, spectacularly the house? Félix’s paranoia threatens a more mature air than its predeces- immense landscape of Patagonia. The to spill over into madness in this sor, resulting in a slightly darker, tempo and the geography of the film quietly terrifying tale which plays a richer experience. The songs are new change entirely. Working at a tiny number of ingenious riffs on the clas- arrangements of ’70s and ’80s Spanish rural airport where random problems sic locked-room mystery, culminating pop classics and emerge fairly seam- constantly delay flights, Santiago in a third-act turnaround that’s noth- lessly from the action. sleepwalks through his days. Despite ing short of stunning. An eye-catch- —Jonathan Holland. his isolation, Santiago can’t exorcise ing, stylishly minimalist thriller, this the demons from his past. is sure to inspire some uneasy dreams —Diana Sanchez. of its own.

3 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival

Tapas The Education The of Fairies Spain, 2006. Backwoods La educación de hadas Subtitled. Colour. Bosque de sombras Dolby Digital Stereo. 94 min Spain-France-Argentina, 2006. Spain-U.K-France, 2006. Subtitled. Colour. Director: José Corbacho, Juan Cruz Subtitled. Dolby Digital Stereo. 103 min. th Dolby Digital Stereo. 98 min Sunday 25 March/6.30pm Director: José Luis Cuerda An unexpectedly appetising, decep- Director: Koldo Serra th Sunday 25th March/2.00pm Sunday 25 March/3.30pm tively slight slice of Barcelona barrio life, Tapas has wowed Spanish audi- English couple Norman (Paddy Underrated director and producer ence and critics. The recipient of sev- Considine) and Lucy (French actress José Luis Cuerda (The Butterfly’s eral awards, directors José Corbacho Virginie Ledoyen) travel to Spain’s Tongue) returns to his favourite and Juan Cruz’s deft, unpretentious Basque Country to stay at the isolated theme—the transformational power début is low-key, character-based fare country house that their friend Paul of a child-like imagination—in this whose multiple virtues are grounded (Gary Oldman) and his wife Isabel engaging fable based on a French novel. in its faithfulness to emotional truth. (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) have reno- The Education of Fairies is a charming, vated. When a stranger enters a bar It features three loosely interwoven delicate tale about the various ways in this part of the world, it is custom stories. The first deals with rotund, people deal with loss. It begins as for the locals to stop talking and look blustering bar owner Lolo (Ángel de Nicolás (a wonderful performance up—especially when the stranger is Andrés López), who is abandoned by Argentine actor Ricardo Darín) Ledoyen in a damp shirt. by his spouse even before the credits meets Ingrid (French actress Irène have finished. Suddenly needing a On a hunting trip in the woods, the Jacob) and her young son Raúl on cook, Lolo hires a Chinese immigrant two men find a young girl abandoned an airplane heading to Barcelona. and suddenly finds the bar getting a and looking distinctly feral. They Ingrid is clearly the woman Nicolás reputation for good food. Meanwhile, return with her to the house, where has been waiting for all his life, and middle-aged shop-owner Raquel they are visited by a bunch of angry Raúl the son he’s never had. In no (Elvira Mínguez), also separated locals. The ensuing onslaught of vio- time they’re married and living in a and equally isolated, is involved with lence recalls the likes of Straw Dogs beautiful house. Nicolás forms a very an Internet relationship when teen and Deliverance as the film depicts the close bond with Raúl, spending long supermarket worker César (Rubén group’s desperate attempt to get the hours telling him about the world and Ochandiano) turns up at the house to young girl to the nearest village. This the special race of fairies whose job it fix her video. The third yarn involves stylish feature début by young Basque is to protect it and make things right. the elderly Conchi (the ever depend- director Koldo Serra borrows from When events take an unexpected turn able María Galiana), who makes a the conventions of American genre for the worse, Raúl expects these very living by selling speed to local kids in cinema and boasts some splendid cin- fairies to make their appearance. Lolo’s bar. ematography of stunning locations. Oldman, who speaks good Spanish, Directors Cruz and Corbacho set up gives a characteristically committed their characters with great skill and performance. lay out their dilemmas without slip- ping into melodrama.

4 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival Habana The Night Blues of the Sunflowers The comedy of power Honour of La noche de los girasoles Spain-Cuba-France, 2006. Dolby Digital Stereo. 115 min the Knights Spain-Portugal-France, 2006. Honor de cavalleria Subtitled. Colour. Dolby Digital Stereo. 123 min Director: Benito Zambrano Spain, 2006. Wednesday 28th March/6.20pm Subtitled. Colour. Director: Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo th Dolby Digital Stereo. 110 min Tuesday 27 March/6.40pm The second film from Spanish director Benito Zambrano (Solas), this is a Director: Albert Serra Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo finds and th lively musical journey through the Monday 26 March/6.30pm unlikely home film noir in the forgot- streets and clubs of Havana that’s a ten hinterlands of the Spanish inte- million miles (and years) removed Film directors Ozu and Pasolini are rior with his gripping, assured debut from The Buena Vista Social Club. palpable influences on this quirky The Night of the Sunflowers. A dark, It follows two young musicians, contemporary reflection on Cervan- substantial plotline spread over six Tito (Roberto Sanmartín) and Ruy tes’s celebrated novel Don Quixote. increasingly tantalising episodes and (Alberto Yeol), as they struggle to suc- Director Albert Serra eschews habit- an intimate knowledge of the dynam- ceed—even survive—through their ual formulas for historical dramas in ics of Spanish rural life are the twin music. Ruy lives with his grandmother providing a far more austere reflection foundations for a beguiling piece. on how a text from the distant past (the wonderful Zenia Marabal), a might be re-envisaged for present day In the opening episode, a vacuum famed Cuban singer, Tito with the audiences. As such, the film provides cleaner salesman (sublimely creepy almost-estranged mother of his two a commentary on a novel that has Manuel Moron) rapes Gabi ( Judith kids. The arrival of two Spanish music fascinated and arguably defied film- Diakhate) in an isolated spot as she producers seeking talent stirs things makers as diverse as Orson Welles awaits the arrival of her husband and up in the tight community of young and Terry Gilliam. his assistant. Infuriated upon finding musicians. Gabi in a state of shock, the two men Director Zambrano, who attended This is a minimalist tale of routines go in search of the rapist, but end film school in Cuba, provides an and rituals, where the mundane and up killing the wrong person. Two enjoyably anarchic love letter to the the mystical go hand in hand. Lluís members of the civil guard investigate never-say-die spirit of Cubans and Serrat’s Sancho Panza is no quick- the crimes, but from very different to music as a way of life. The story is witted sidekick but a rather placid, shy perspectives. servant and a man of few words. Lluís very basic, but the music is terrific. Carbó’s Quixote is a surrogate father The film is structured so that a differ- For a change, the musicians here are of sorts, an impatient old man whose ent character is to the fore in each of not aged men who play the Cuban adventures are now few. Shot entirely the six episodes, meaning the plentiful son, but young guys who like to play on location, with a resourceful camera thrills are appropriately distributed. rock and blues. The film shows that that is as much a distant observer of Psychological motivation is carefully modern Cuban music comes in many the action as an involved participant, positioned early on, with smart pacing different forms, from hip hop to blues. this is a film on the poetics of the maintaining the film’s grip to the ordinary, that imagines Cervantes’s strangely muted night-time finale. eponymous duo through the prisms The performances are superb. of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. —Jonathan Holland/‘Variety’. —Maria Delgado.

5 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival Remake Buenos Aires Princesses Princesas Spain-Argentina, 2006. 1977 Subtitled. Colour. Crónica de una fuga Spain, 2005. Dolby Digital Stereo. 94 min Subtitled. Colour. Argentina, 2006. Dolby Digital Stereo. 113 min Director: Roger Gual Subtitled. Colour. Friday 30th March/9.00pm Dolby Digital Stereo. 102 min Director: Fernando Léon de Aranoa Friday 30th March/6.30pm Director: Israel Adrián Caetano Director Roger Gual’s follow-up to th Smoking Room is a European Big Chill Thursday 29 March/6.40pm Two street prostitutes working a centred on a reunion of ex-hippies, tough area of Madrid have a mutual Claudio Tamburrini (Rodrigo de la now mostly solidly bourgeois, whose sympathy that gets them through Serna) is a goalkeeper playing for laissez-faire parenting skills come their hard days. a B-league soccer team in Buenos back to nip them. Aires in 1977, while Argentina is suf- Caye (Almodóvar veteran Candela Back when dropping out and tuning fering the tyranny of military fascist Peña) is a tough but wounded hooker in seemed like the thing to do, a group rule. Cited for alleged left-wing sym- who’s trapped in a depressed, whore- of friends started a commune in a pathies, he is picked up by a task force for-life mindset. She plies her trade rambling farmhouse in the hills of working for the Argentine govern- from her girlfriend Gloria’s beauty Catalunya. Now, more than 30 years ment, who take him to a clandestine parlour. From there, she and the other later, Max (Mario Paolucci) is the detention centre known as Sere white girls glower disapprovingly at only one left, a dysfunctional relic Mansion, a sinister old building in the the Caribbean and Latin American cut off from the modern world who suburban neighbourhood of Moron. immigrant streetwalkers who work calls for a reunion before selling the Alongside other young detainees the park outside. One of these is rundown place. While Max never there, he is subjected to the sustained Zulema (Micaela Neárez), an infi- adjusted to life post-1968, the four torment of interrogations, beatings, nitely more well-balanced Dominican adults who join him for a last farewell humiliations and betrayals, suffering woman who’s hooking only to support are all successful city types. As the relentless violence, both mental and her son back home. They become weekend unfolds, they’re confronted physical. Are the men to endure this friends after Caye helps Zulema not only by failed ideals and pink-tinged before their executions that look when she’s beaten up by a crooked memories on Super-8 film, but by increasingly inevitable? Or might cop. Gradually, Zulema’s hard-won their underachieving children, who they summon the strength necessary wisdom and dignity seep into Caye’s blame them for a non-traditional to escape their tormentors? consciousness, liberating her from her upbringing. The tension between the Based on Claudio Tamburrini’s own self-hatred and knee-jerk racism. younger generation’s paralysis and incredible true story, director Israel Director Fernando Léon de Aranoa’s their parents’ earlier experimenta- Adrián Caetano’s film presents a re- follow-up to Mondays in the Sun is a tion differentiates Remake from most markably realistic horror story, a tense, small miracle of controlled empathy. other inward-looking dramas of failed probing thriller set at a time in recent It seeks and finds the warm, beat- ’60s idealism. history that should not be forgotten, ing hearts of his two protagonists, —Jay Weissberg/Variety. when between 10,000 and 30,000 elucidating their particular dilemmas. people disappeared after being snatched Apart from the revelatory perform- from their homes or places of work by the ances, there’s also great music from country’s security forces. Manu Chao and Gato Perez. —Michael Hayden.

6 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival The Road In Bed to San Diego En la cama El camino de San Diego Chile-Germany, 2005. El Topo Subtitled. Colour. Argentina, 2006. Dolby Digital Stereo. 85 min Subtitled. Colour. Mexico, 1970. Dolby Digital Stereo. 98 min Director: Matías Bize Subtitled. Colour. Saturday 31th March/9.00pm 125 min Director: Carlos Sorín Saturday 31th March/6.30pm Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky Unfolding entirely in a cheap motel, th Chilean sex-comedy-drama In Bed Saturday 31 March/1.45pm Carlos Sorín’s delightfully offbeat features a couple (Blanca Lewin and Road to San Diego, about a young Drawing inspiration from a multitude Gonzalo Valenzuela) who’ve just met backwoodsman with a Diego Maradona of sources, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s hours before working through a pack- fetish, is another audience-friendly ‘acid western’ started the whole mid- et of condoms together and having a addition to the director’s repertoire night movie craze of the early 1970s one-night relationship in miniature. of bizarre human interest stories, and is now something of a cult classic. The film’s elegantly simple, Richard most notably his doggy tale Bombón Linklater-esque concept, written by El Topo opens with a passage that el perro. In an opening half hour of Julio Rojas, is energetically consum- could be an existential journey for laugh-out-loud ‘mockumentary’, old mated by young director Matías Bize one’s soul or a spoof of a Sergio timers from a village in the distant (Saturday) and its handsome leads. Leone spaghetti western: the province of Misiones tell the camera bearded, leather-clad gunfighter El about Tati (Ignacio Benitez) and his The film opens with noisy sounds Topo ( Jodorowsky himself ) and his overriding obsession with the soccer of lovemaking. After the sex is over, young son (Brontis Jodorowsky) ride icon. Among other oddities, Tati has Daniela (Lewin) and Bruno (Valen- through the desert and into a hamlet the star’s number ‘10’ tattooed on his zuela) discuss past sexual exploits and of bloodily decimated people and back; his parrots cry ‘Maradona’ in longer relationships, watch TV, and animals. From then on, it’s a winding, chorus. share a bath. During a post-coital spiralling road of evil bandits, mysti- massage, Bruno lets slip that he’s When his hero is hospitalised in cal foes, and whip-cracking dykes, leaving in a week for Belgium, and April 2004, Tati decides to make the spiked with indelible, surreal imagery. suddenly the flicker of hope goes out long journey to Buenos Aires to give Bullets provide the stigmata for in Daniela’s eyes. Maradona a present. Despite being the hero’s nutty crucifixion midway penniless, Tati hits the road with through, and the movie’s second half Like Beckett’s tramps in Waiting for touching dedication. On the way to finds El Topo as a bald-headed Holy Godot, they announce several times it’s St. Diego, his path is humorously Fool, reborn in a cave full of extras time to go, but neither actually leaves strewn with locals struggling through from Tod Browning’s Freaks. and the mood lightens again, leading the country’s very real economic crisis. to a third, tender tussle in the sack. By Whether one takes it as a staggeringly The non-professional cast brings an the end, the two have revealed major visionary work or a sadistic circus innocent goodness to every role. In- secrets they’ve never told before, procession making an opportunistic deed, it’s hard to find an ill-tempered emboldened by the belief they won’t grab for every artistic base (Buñuel or mean-spirited character in a film meet again. and Zen, Eisenstein and pantomime, where even Maradona’s guards are —Leslie Felperin/Variety. Antonin Artaud and Russ Meyer), kind and helpful. there is no denying the immersive —Deborah Young/Variety. being of the film. —Fernando F. Croce.

7 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival Alatriste Suely Ferpect Crime TO BE Crimen ferpecto Spain, 2006. in the Sky CONFIRMED Subtitled. Colour. O Céu de Suely Spain-Italy, 2004. Dolby Digital Stereo. 135 min Subtitled. Colour. Anamorphic. Brazil-Germany-France, 2006. Dolby Digital Stereo. 103 min Director: Agustín Díaz Yanes Subtitled. Colour. Sunday 1st April/8.00pm Dolby Digital Stereo. 90 min Director: Álex de la Iglesia Sunday 1st April/6.00pm Director: Karim Aïnouz Based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s st best-selling series of novels, Alatriste Sunday 1 April/1.30pm A rollicking, unpretentious and often is an epic swashbuckler set in the early hilarious black comedy that looks After the success of his first feature, 17th century when courtly corruption terrific from first frame to last, Álex the dynamic and stylised Madame was signalling the downfall of Spain’s de la Iglesia’s Ferpect Crime doubles Satã, Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz global empire. Viggo Mortensen plays as a cheerily complicit attack on our once again delivers a powerful story Alastriste, a noble soldier of very few obsession with image. of personal transformation full of words and very large actions. As the rich and memorable characters. Department store employee Rafael film begins, he’s battling for the Spanish Unlike the earlier film, Suely in the (Guillermo Toledo), a Don Juan and Crown in Flanders. On returning to Sky is set in the expansive, empty terrific salesman who feels most at a much-changed Spain, he begins landscape of north-eastern Brazil. home in the ruthless environment of working as a hired swordsman. After two years of living in São Paulo, the women’s department, spends his The country is ruled by a feeble Hermila (Hermila Guedes) returns days persuading women to buy things monarch, and the fraudulent upper- to her village with her newborn son, they didn’t know they wanted and class, whose opulent lifestyle polarises anxiously awaiting the arrival of her his nights making love to colleague the nation, subjects the common husband. Time passes slowly here Roxanne (Kira Miro). Rafael is miss- people to lives of misery. Against and the wait becomes an even heavier ing only one thing: promotion to floor this backdrop, Alatriste is a singular burden as Hermila realises that she’s manager. His rival, Antonio, beats figure: unassuming, noble in spirit, a been abandoned. Determined to raise him to the job. When the two men warrior to the last. And yet we also enough money to leave the stifling get into a fight in the store’s changing witness his softer, more vulnerable environment of her hometown, she rooms, Antonio is accidentally killed. comes up with an unlikely prize to side through his lifelong affair with raffle off—one conceived during Deranged, aesthetically challenged the famous actress María de Castro her chats with newfound friend and shop assistant Lourdes (Monica (Ariadna Gil). local prostitute Georgina (Georgina Cervera), who is secretly in love Díaz Yanes perhaps tries to cram in Castro). with Rafael, witnesses the accident. too much material from the novels, She enthusiastically helps Rafael but his film is impressively mounted Aïnouz adorns his alluring film with dismember the body, a blacker-than- on a large scale. The painterly visuals captivating cinematography and a black scene that the visuals exploit make constant reference to the chilly delicate, nostalgic atmosphere. What to the comic maximum. The two beauty of Spain’s great artist Diego is most powerful, however, is the become accomplices, which is a dream Velázquez. spirit of this abandoned young single come true for her but a nightmare for mother, who is determined to live life him—especially when she decides she to the fullest as she journeys towards wants to get married. new, open horizons.—Diana Sanchez. —Jonathan Holland/‘Variety’.

8 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival Spanish & Latin American Film Festival

Festival Tour A fiesta of Spanish and Latin American films, the highlights of the festival, will travel to Galway and Cork in March.

EYE Cinema Cinema Wellpark Washington Street Galway Cork www.eyecinema.ie www.kinocinema.net Contact: 091 780078 Contact: 021 4271571

Mon 26th March Sat 24th March 7:30pm El Aura (The Aura) 11:30 am El Violin (The Violin) Tues 27th March Sun 25th March 7:30pm Un Franco, 14 Pesetas (Crossing Borders) 11:30 am Crimen Ferpecto (Ferpect Crime) Wed 28th March Sat 31th March 7:30pm Crimen Ferpeto (Ferpect Crime) 11:30 am Un Franco, 14 Pesetas (Crossing Borders) Thurs 29th March Sun 1st April 7:30pm El Violin (The Violin) 11:30 am El Aura (The Aura)

If you are a cinema exhibitor, local arts organisation or community group who would like to get involved in hosting a festival screening, please contact Alice Black (ablack@irishfilm.ie or 01 612 9407).

Schools Screening

7 Virgenes (7 Virgins) March 27th at 10:30am. Dir: Alberto Rodriguez | Spain | 2005 | 86 mins | Colour

This screening is aimed at Senior Cycle Spanish students, but is open to all Sen- ior Cycle and Transition Year students through their schools. You MUST reserve seat in advance. Tickets are €5 each. It is a hot summer in Seville and the dispiriting thuggery his friends are Alberto Rodríguez’s feature bears 16-year-old Tano (Juan José Ballesta) into—stealing, date-raping, beating witness to the troubling exploits of has been given a weekend pass from ju- people up. His impoverished life at marginalized youth in a town in southern venile detention to go to his brother’s home is also depressing, a reality Spain, but his approach is unique: wedding. He means to make the most amply illustrated by his brother’s rather than pitying his characters, of it, planning to spend time with his wedding, one of the most miserable his film offers a registry of their lives, best friend Richi ( Jesús Carroza), affairs imaginable. It seems that Tano showing them as young, content and hang out with friends, get drunk, get is the only person in this environment simply getting on with things, albeit stoned and have sex. who has the will to get out and change with their own codes But time away has changed Tano: his destiny. of conduct. he realizes he wants to steer clear of