VISITING ARTIST—Twenty-something Bianca (Silvia Abascal) excitedly reveals to her aunt, Barbara (Almodóvar favorite Verónica Forqué), that she’s met the man of her dreams. But soon after they meet, he disappears. Taken by the real estate savvy Barbara to see a house that’s up for sale, Bianca notices a framed portrait of her missing love on the mantle. The older couple that own the house reveal that it’s a picture of their deceased son. This often hilarious and outrageous thriller journeys to some of the odder haunts of Madrid as it spins a wild plot featuring an insecure actress, a secretary who claims to have ESP, and an increasingly furious husband. Costume designer Pepe Reyes received a special award at this year’s Málaga Film Festival, a premiere showcase of new Spanish film, for the film’s eye-popping wardrobe.

Sponsored by Miracle Theater Group.

Join us for a post-film reception with screenwriter Antonio Albert.

Spanish graphic novelist Miguelanxo Prado is one of the best-known and most important European comic authors. Here he turns to animation to bring to life this lyrical, wordless story about freedom, passion, and loss. A woman plays the viola while her partner, a painter who is fascinated by the sea, is away on a fishing boat. When his boat is capsized by a storm, he embarks on an evocative, dreamlike underwater journey with a lovely mermaid. Brought to life by the digitization of thousands of Prado’s paintings and drawings, DEPROFUNDIS is an homage to the ocean and its enchantment of imagination. A unique artistic vision that will captivate viewers of all ages.

The directorial debut from one of the strongest emerging talents in Spain, award-winning writer David Planell (SEVEN BILLIARD TABLES was screened last year), THE SHAME boldly offers a glimpse into the home of Pepe and Lucia, a modern couple with a big problem: they cannot handle Manu, their eight-year-old Peruvian adopted child. They soon realize the price they must pay if they want to go ahead with their brazen plan to send him back. Planell skillfully makes the jump from screenwriter to director as he tells an alternately caustic, tender, and funny tale about the paradoxes and wounds of a couple engulfed by shame. Winner of the Best Film and Best Screenplay Awards at the Málaga Film Festival.

Sponsored by Tierra Educational Center.

SINGLE OR DOUBLE FEATURE (Double feature with A FIANCÉ FOR YASMINA)

Double features cost an additional $2 to stay for both films. To purchase an advanced ticket for the double feature, be sure to select the DOUBLE FEATURE rather than the single ticket.

A tenderhearted romantic story, A FIANCÉ FOR YASMINA charts the tangled imbroglio that arises when emotional dilemmas, star-crossed relationships, and the unpredictable effects of love bring mayhem upon a group of friends who gather at an immigrants' center. Lola, always sunny and optimistic, tries to ignore the mounting tensions in her own relationship by indulging her love of fairytale weddings. Her fiancé, Javi, seems reluctant to set a wedding date, and it just may be that he has his eye on Yasmina, who needs a visa (or marriage) to stay in Spain. Meanwhile, Alfredo would be happy to marry—for love or money. This funny and engaging drama earned awards at the Málaga Film Festival for Best Film and Best Actress, as well as the Audience Prize.

Sponsored by Castalia Language Center.

SINGLE OR DOUBLE FEATURE (Double feature with THE SHAME)

Double features cost an additional $2 to stay for both films. To purchase an advanced ticket for the double feature, be sure to select the DOUBLE FEATURE rather than the single ticket.

Winner of six Goya Awards (Spanish Academy Awards) including Best Director, Best Film, and Best Original Screenplay, CAMINO weaves melodrama, horror, and animation into one of the most powerful Spanish films of the decade. Pamplona, June 2001: Eleven-year-old Camino is living out the last moments of her short life in a hospital room. Surrounded by relatives, friends, priests, and medical personnel, she seems almost ethereal as she slips peacefully away. Yet, something extraordinary hangs in the air, as Camino copes with her loss in a fantastic dream world. Just a few months before, she was an ordinary girl enjoying childish games and dreams until, at the same time as her illness appeared, she was struck by first love. The faith of her father is shaken by his daughter's fatal illness, while her mother, a religious fanatic in the draw of Opus Dei, sees Camino’s pain and suffering as confirmation that her daughter has been “chosen” by God.

Ramirez is a confident loner whose fox-like ways and alluring looks allow him to wander aimlessly through life. Despite his upper-middle-class status, he has chosen a life of crime. Believed to be an artistic photographer, he is in fact a drug dealer by day and by night a dangerous hunter of anonymous women – objects of his perverse “artistic” tendencies. His character is shrouded in mystery, though perhaps the key to unlocking the mystery rests in his indifference to his bed-ridden mother. His obsessions with one-night stands and photography crash together in an unforgettable climax, as he finally becomes a victim of his own heartlessness.

Santiago Zannou's impressive feature film debut was the winner of Goya Awards for Best First Film, Best Ensemble Acting, and Best Music. Partly paralyzed since childhood, Cuajo has a sustaining dream: to succeed in music. With his friend Adolfo, he attempts to set up a studio while gathering Barcelona’s freshest hip-hop talent. ONE-ARMED TRICK features some of the hottest stars of Spanish rap—among them Elio Sagues, Ovone Candela La Mala Rodriguez, and El Langui, lead singer of La Excepción, recently voted the best Spanish-language rappers on MTV.

SINGLE OR DOUBLE FEATURE (Double feature with AMATEURS)

Double features cost an additional $2 to stay for both films. To purchase an advanced ticket for the double feature, be sure to select the DOUBLE FEATURE rather than the single ticket.

Julio Nieves is a 65-year-old foreman who has spent his entire life in the Madrid suburb of Vallecas. In the blink of an eye, he goes from contentedly facing his retirement alone to the possibility of companionship in the form of a 16-year-old girl from Marseille, who claims to be his daughter. But what if she’s not his flesh and blood? And what if Nieves takes her in to ease the pain of his own solitude? How far will people go to avoid being alone?

SINGLE OR DOUBLE FEATURE (Double feature with ONE-ARMED TRICK)

Double features cost an additional $2 to stay for both films. To purchase an advanced ticket for the double feature, be sure to select the DOUBLE FEATURE rather than the single ticket.