A Spanish film fest for cineastes

The sixth annual Spanish film festival, La Película, is coming to Kino Světozor before taking the show on the road to Brno. As with previous years, the festival will showcase a sampling of Spanish films, some of which feature English subtitles. For fans of foreign cinema whose language skills are restricted to English, the expat experience can be decidedly frustrating. Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's latest film (Broken Embraces) has been circulating in local cinemas for months, for instance, but, unless one is willing to parse Spanish with Czech subtitles, the idea of seeing it is a nonstarter. La Película offers a solution, however. The festival's program this year is varied, both in terms of subject matter and topicality, featuring classic and modern films alike.

"The festival is not just trying to feature the newest hot stuff," says Ivo Andrle from Světozor.

Andrle went on to explain that the selections on hand are intended to offer a "bigger and broader feel for what Spanish cinema has to offer" than what is typically available to local cineastes. Spanish-born director Diego Fandos (who resides in Prague) will be in attendance, and Czech actor Kryštof Hádek (who stars in Fandos' film, Cosmos) will be at Světozor for a Q&A after the screening. The following selections represent the lion's share of what the festival has to offer featuring English subtitles.

The Blind Sunflowers (Los girasoles ciegos)-2008. José Luis Cuerda, director. Co-written by the director and Rafael Azcona, the film follows the fortunes of a family of former Republican sympathizers in Spain during the 1940s whose lives are disrupted by war as well as the widow's becoming the object of a local priest's obsessive romantic attentions. Světozor, Feb. 19 at 8:30

Tasio-1984. Montxo Armendáriz, director. A classic example of the best that Spanish cinema has to offer, Tasio employs documentary realism and historical fact to examine the plight of Spanish farmers. The plot follows Armendáriz's titular protagonist, inspired by the life of Otxoa Anastasio, as he struggles to scratch out a living. Světozor, Feb. 20 at 4

Ich bin Enric Marko-2009. Santiago Fillol and Lucas Vermal, directors. A scandal-ridden Enric Marco, a former president of Spain's main deportees' association, embarks upon a road trip to Germany, retracing the path of a journey he made as a part of a group of workers sent by Franco to Hitler in 1941. Světozor, Feb. 17 at 6:30; Feb. 19 at 9

Cosmos-2007. Diego Fandos, director. Fandos, who calls Prague home, tells the story of a psychically tortured businessman who, by some bizarre and inexplicable confluence of circumstance and narrative necessity, is compelled to help a "forgotten" astronaut abandoned in space to somehow return to Earth. Světozor, Feb. 19 at 6

Summer Rain (El Camino de los ingleses)-2006. Antonio Banderas, director. Summer Rain, an official selection at the upcoming Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, is a bildungsroman about young Miguelito, who has recently been released from the hospital with "a long scar and a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy," possessed of a burning ambition to become a writer. Before he can do anything of the sort, however, he has one last summer of romance and fun before adulthood will force him to face reality. Světozor, Feb. 20 at 6

The Fish Child (El niňo pez)-2009. Lucía Puenzo, director. Love, lust and distrust drive two young girls to commit murder in this tale of star-crossed lovers set in an exclusive residential area of Buenos Aires. Světozor, Feb. 21 at 6

The Two Lives of Andrés Rabadán (Les dues vides d'Andrés Rabadán)-2008. Ventura Durall, director. Based on a true story, The Two Lives of Andrés Rabadán tells the tale of a tortured felon convicted of killing his own father who plots an escape attempt after 11 years in a state institution. His plans are put on hold, however, when a new psychiatrist appears on the scene and forces him to confront the causes that lie behind his crime. Světozor, Feb. 20 at 8:30

James Walling can be reached at
jwalling@praguepost.com