Have you chosen your picks for this year’s Moro Spanish Film Festival?
With sessions already filling up, we’re taking a moment to look at 5 films we think are must-sees!
If I Were Rich (M) | BOOK TICKETS
It’s a sparkling tale of love lost and wealth found in Goya Award-winning director Álvaro Fernández Armero’s Spanish reimagining of Gérard Bitton and Michel Munz’s 2002 French comedy, Ah! Si j’étais richer. Desperate and unemployed, Santi (Álex García) is having a hard time. He can’t get a job, and his wife Maite (Alexandra Jiménez) has filed for divorce. To make matters worse, Santi suspects she is in love with her boss. With nowhere to turn, he buys a lottery ticket with the hope it will be the answer to his problems. When he wins 25 million Euro it seems all his dreams have come true…or have they? Forced to hide his newfound wealth so his soon-to-be ex-wife doesn’t get a share of his fortune, the scene is set for a string of hysterical encounters as Santi struggles to keep his two identities separate.
Through all of Santi’s ups and downs, the dazzling dialogue and increasingly outrageous circumstances he finds himself in make If I Were Rich one of the most upbeat and genuinely funny comedies of the year.
Spider (CTC) | BOOK TICKETS
Selected as the Chilean entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards and making its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, powerhouse filmmaker Andrés Wood returns with his eighth film, the taut historical thriller Spider. An unflinching movie that examines how the past can impact the present, Spider weaves together two separate timelines. In the 1970s, a gang of young radicals are mobilised into political action in a right-wing Nationalist group that saw the violent ousting of Salvador Allende in 1973 and the rise of Augusto Pinochet’s nearly two-decade-long military junta. Jumping forward to present day, the surviving members have taken different paths, some obsessed with the perceived injustices of the past and others struggling to keep that past at bay.
Simmering tensions build to boiling point in Spider as its exceptional cast paint a riveting tale of intrigue that spans generations. Wood lays bare the psychological trauma that Chile’s violent history has had not just on individuals, but on the nation as a whole, in this explosive drama.
A Theif’s Daughter (CTC) | BOOK TICKETS
The film that has seen Greta Fernández’s star rise, A Thief’s Daughter witnesses her deliver a highly awarded, career-defining lead performance, next to her real-life father Eduard Fernández (Truman SFF16, Perfect Strangers). Echoing directors like Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers, director Belén Funes brings a fresh, fearless imagining to the social realism formula in this poignant character study of 22-year-old mother, Sara. Caring for her baby and her younger brother whilst trying to maintain her relationship with her partner, Sara dreams of a blissful family life in Barcelona. But when her troubled father suddenly reappears in her life after his release from jail, the young woman is forced to make some difficult decisions: supporting her father or prioritising the welfare of her young family?
Struggling with these big questions as well as the everyday challenges of childcare, work and housing, A Thief’s Daughter is a moving and courageous exploration of family, duty and strength when life keeps presenting you with seemingly insurmountable hurdles.
The Goya Murders (CTC) | BOOK TICKETS
Bringing a Spanish art history angle to the familiar serial killer trope, The Goya Murders presents a thrilling whodunnit with two starkly different female investigators, Carmen and Eva, on the hunt for a psychopath. Carmen (Maribel Verdú, Y Tu Mamá También Closing Night SFF19) is tough: a hardboiled, heavy drinking, burnt-out police detective who – with her new, inexperienced partner, Eva – is pulled into a murder investigation unlike any other, with the bodies starting to pile up and no real clues to help. Pressure mounts due to the profile of the elite victims, and the two women are bamboozled by what could be the motive behind the striking signature of the killer’s crimes. Each murder scene is a careful, painstakingly constructed re-enactment of a scene from Francisco Goya’s famous Los caprichos series of prints from the late 18th century.
Desperate to stop the killings before they are faced with another grotesque murder scene, these awkward partners will have to put their differences aside to stop a killer who taunts them with art insight and intellect.
Bye Bye Mr. Extebeste! (CTC) | BOOK TICKETS
The long-anticipated sequel to the 2005 Basque hit comedy Aupa Etxebeste! sees beret-maker Patrizio Etxebeste discover that life as town mayor isn’t as easy as he thought. Feigning poor health so he can resign before being disgraced in a corruption scandal, Patrizio passes the job on to his wife María Luisa, whom he assumes will follow his orders. Chaos ensues when this does not turn out to be the case, as María Luisa has ideas of her own. Seeing an opportunity to make real change, his wife seizes the chance of a lifetime, but will their marriage survive?
Reuniting the electric combination of Ramón Agirre (Operation Goldenshell SFF18) and Elena Irureta as they return to their roles of Mr. and Mrs. Etxebeste, this sharp social satire about corruption and power in local politics world premiered to critical acclaim at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Lampooning politics and marriage in a classic battle-of-the-sexes comedy, Bye Bye Etxebeste! is as topical as it is hilarious.
For session times, or to browse this year’s films, visit here.
