This annual festival, now in its 19th year, showcases filmmaking from Latin America, including Spain and Portugal. This year’s selection includes over thirty films—multiple award-winners, international festival favorites, local box-office hits and debut works by promising new talents.
Here’s a sneak peak at predicted favorites with trailers in whatever language I could find:
A R G E N T I N A
THE SIGNAL
[La Señal]
A major box office success in Argentina, this is the directing debut by established Argentine actor Ricardo Darín. Set against the background of the decline in health of Eva Peron in the 1950s,Darín is one half of a down-and-out gumshoe partnership. Working alongside his partner Diego Peretti, he cares for little other than his dog, what’s going on at the racetrack and occasional liaisons with his teacher girlfriend. Things change when femme fatale Julieta Díaz, the wife of a mafia kingpin asks him to trail a man–but things get steamy after his mark turns up dead and she turns up the heat on their relationship.
Thursday, September 18, 7:00; Sunday, September 21, 9:00; Tuesday, September 23, 9:00
B R A Z I L
O PAI, O
This hilarious tale of creativity, resourcefulness and survival travels through the colorful streets of Pelourinho, a small town in the historic district of Salvador, on the last day of Carnival. The tenement houses teem with riotous conversation, romance and lust. Residents conspire against each other as they mix Orishas and Jesus, preparing for a celebration that they hope will erase their fears, worries and dark secrets — at least momentarily. Featuring lyrical, soulful rhythms in a fabulous soundtrack by Davi Moraes and Caetano Veloso. (note courtesy Latin Beat)
Thursday, October 2, 9:20; Sunday, October 5, 9:15
M E X I C O
LOVE, PAIN AND VICE VERSA
[Amor, dolor y viceversa; aka Violanchelo]
Official selection, 2008 Tribeca and Morelia Film Festivals. Alonso Pineda Ulloa’s feverish thriller stars Barbara Mori as a Mexico City architect who can’t find Mr. Right in her waking life, but for some time has been conducting a torrid romance with a dream lover by night. Convinced this man must exist somewhere in the real world, she falsely claims to have been attacked and gives the police a description of her dream lover. When they haul in respected cardiologist Leonard Sbaraglia, he is in fact the man of her dreams. Although his alibi checks out, he is soon visited by Mori in his sleep–and in a decidedly more nightmarish setting.
Friday, September 19, 8:00; Saturday, September 20, 7:00; Sunday, September 21, 7:00
S P A I N
CASUAL DAY
Anyone who has ever experienced a corporate staff retreat will appreciate the rich black humor of this clever cross between “The Office” and a Mike Leigh comedy. Only one week into his new job, Ruy, an uncertain 20-something engaged to the boss’s daughter, participates in a weekend retreat that could prove life-changing. With an expert cast that includes veteran Spanish actor Juan Diego as the manipulative boss, CASUAL DAY brings out the subtle treacheries of office politics in the unlikeliest of settings–the idyllic countryside. (note courtesy 2008 Miami Film Festival)
Friday, October 3, 6:00; Monday, October 6, 7:10
V E N E Z U E L A
POSTCARDS FROM LENINGRAD
[Postales de Leningrado]
Venezuela’s 2007 Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1960s Venezuela, Marcela and her couisin Teo live with their grandparents while waiting for their parents, guerilla revolutionaries, to return. Together the children spin many imaginative fantasies involving superheroic revolutionaries, even as their parents’ struggle simply to survive. By turns humorous and heartbreaking, Mariana Rondón’s film is greatly enlivened by her inventive visual technique, making use of vintage newsreels and travelogues, digital animation and still photography to tell a story that has as much to do with memory and imagination as the hard facts of history.
Saturday, September 20, 1:00; Sunday, September 21, 3:00
I guess the Mexican and Spanish movies have come and gone. There’s plenty more films that are still playing that look great though (O Mistério do Samba, Malos hábitos, etc). The festival goes until October 7th. More details are on AFI’s website: http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/2008/v5i5/latin08.aspx . I think the movies are $10/person. Enjoy!
September 23, 2008 at 10:22 am
did some of these movies already come and go (looking at the above dates)? also, can you give some more info about where these are playing/cost/etc? i’d like to check some of them out–thanks!
September 23, 2008 at 9:54 am