The recent Spanish Film Festival had a hefty 32 films as their offering. From this, I am picking 16 of them as my personal best of the lot. These films got my five-star approval rating so catch them when you can when they get a cinema release.
The following are the films ranked in order of preference.
THE SAME BLOOD (Drama/Thriller) – Takes the top spot. Really well-structured, sleek, unpredictable, dark family murder with a violent jaw-dropping ending.
THE GOOD GIRLS (Drama) – My second top favourite is a period piece from Argentina that is quite timely and classic. A well-explored downfall of its high society set.
BREAK (Drama) – Third spot goes to another Argentinian film on friendships, infidelity and examining the approaching midlife crises.
PETRA (Drama) – Stylish, great cinematography and an unpredictable storyline of a woman in search of her father.
VIRGIN AND EXTRA: JAÉN, THE LAND OF THE OLIVE OIL (Documentary) – Everything you wanted to know about Spain’s olive farming industry.
THE DAYS TO COME (Drama) – A riveting drama of a young mother’s actual pregnancy and birth.
TREMORS (Drama) – Explores Guatemala’s bleak, repressive culture against homosexuals and their own religious style of conversion therapy.
CHAMPIONS (Comedy) – Really funny take on disability within a basketball team competition.
BETWEEN TWO WATERS (Drama) – Languid, slow burn piece of the trying relationship between two brothers.
CARMEN AND LOLA (Drama) – A hidden lesbian love affair among Spain’s gypsy community.
THE QUIETUDE (Drama) – Dysfunctional family relationships tear apart a well-to-do Argentinian family.
HOPELESSLY DEVOUT (Comedy) – A dark comedy on Catholic devotion.
70 BIG ONES (Thriller) – Highly riveting bank robbery thriller that will keep you at the edge of your seat.
THE LONGEST NIGHT (Drama/Thriller) – A call girl gets involved with the bad elements.
MY MASTERPIECE (Drama) – This is for art lovers and those who create art.
CRIME WAVE (Comedy/Thriller) – A riotous sex comedy in this mother and son murder cover-up.
Hope you get to see all these diamantes preciosos. Viva las peliculas de España!!!
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Rolmar Baldonado
Films for the cineaste. Were you moved, transported? Did you laugh, cry? Was it cathartic? Were you disturbed, affected, riveted? Did it make you think?
Freelance film editor, cineaste and cinephile
Twitter: @film_critik
Twitter: @rolmar
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Not much is known about famed Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s wife, Antonina Miliukova. Wikipedia summarises her in Tchaikovsky’s biography with just a few statements, stating that their marriage in 1877 was “a disaster” and they were “mismatched psychologically and sexually” and only lived together for six weeks before Tchaikovsky left her, as he was emotionally agitated and suffered “from acute writer’s block.” Their separation forced Tchaikovsky to confront the truth about his sexuality with the support of his family. Ultimately, he “never blamed Antonina for the failure of their marriage.”
