Discoveries from Spain World Cinema

Memory is fragile, and mine perhaps even more so. I make notes or create clues that allow me not to forget, but at the same time help me cross the threshold of death. My seven-year-old daughter Iune has battled rhabdomyosarcoma. To find healing from the experience, I created a four-part ritual in four directions. A journey back home to Mexico. A journey that has been abstract and confusing, yet filled with symbols and meaning. This expanded cinema experience is built from the director’s random, yet sometimes methodical and systematic notes.

Martirio, the mourner, falls in love with Sagrario, the bullfighter, when she sees her fighting the only bull of their little town. In order to get closer to her beloved, she will burn alive that bull to coincide the two of them at the funeral of the animal this way. There they will meet and will begin an intense relationship, where by night they will search the bull murderer all over the region. Finally it will be Martirio who will offer to accomplish the role of the bull on the motorcycle.

A brutal sexual murder of a minor revolts the anger of the town. On the other hand, a psychologist, Sofia Belmar is not only shocked by the event, but this also brings back some of her more gruesome memories.

Summer 2003. Miguel and Javi, two fourteen-year-old friends, spend their days between swims, video games, and a bet that follows them all summer long: to see who can hold their breath underwater the longest. Javi always wins; he says his swimsuit is magical. Intrigued by the mystery, Miguel begins to see his friend in a different way. In the pool, where the world seems to stand still, their friendship transforms into something neither of them can explain. In a time of change and first desires, that summer will mark the end of innocence and the beginning of everything yet to come.

What would you do if you had to fire your best friend? It is at this point where Julio (a young businessman of an apparently reliable firm) finds himself when he learns that Santi along with twenty four other workers under his service has to be fired. His boss and friend Max tries to advise him on how to handle the situation but it soon becomes increasingly entangled. Somos Amigos (We Are Friends) is a short film that seeks to explore the limits between friendship and work... if they exist at all.

A newlywed couple already wants to separate, but the apartment they live in belongs to both in equal parts, so they must go on living together until they discover--after solving many problems--in the end how much they really do love each other.

Luis and Rosa convince an aunt to allow them to use the former summer residence of the family.

The film, inspired by Goya’s paintings – mostly his darker works – and made in the same way as 2017’s Loving Vincent.

As he does every year, Julián, a gay man, visits his dead mother in the village cemetery. She appears to him and they make plans... more or less 'together': she devises them and he obeys. But this year, Julián is going to get a very special request from his mother that will surprise... the whole world.

As a child, John watched his father murder a lover. Traumatized as an adult, his psychiatrist recommends that he sleep with his secretaries, but this awakens the most terrible memories in him and acts on him accordingly.

A good-for-nothing young man and his friend are involved in a woman's death. To escape Police and wanting a change he goes to the small country village he used to visit with his family. Yet his past will find him there.

Film version of Pedro Muñoz Seca's play.

After several years working as a high fashion model, Adel begins to question her surroundings and sense the absurdity of her situation. To ease her mind, she uses her imagination to justify the farcical requests she is faced with.

White powder, dealers and poseur women in a shady city you hardly get a glimpse of. Not to forget a man who introduces himself as a warrior talking to spirits. Salsa lovers share they love for gorillas, cocaine, sex and massages.

Sammy is a quiet and solitary man who lives from the drug business. The most important things in his life are his younger brother, who he is responsible for, and his horse. This short film reveals daily life at the marginalized spaces in Puerto Rico.

In this 21st century, under the cloak of capitalism, governments, and other systems by which society is governed, this short film shows the true social reality of many people “on the street”.

Two friends get together to prepare a film while a production team films the process.

Raphael is one of the most prolific, followed & adored spanish artists in the world. This documentary takes us across his childhood, early years, his home & family, glory, transplant and reinvention as singer & actor in 60 yrs of legacy.

Inspired by films like “L’inconnu du lac” and “O Ornitólogo”, director Valentino R. Sandoli has created “Cruising,” a film that explores desire, erotism and flesh, using an almost voyeuristic style that mixes together with oneiric images that provides a metaphysic tone to the story. A man meets a group of young men while bathing in a lake at the end of summer, and he immediately falls for one of them, who seems to shine with his own light. He follows them into the woods, where he watches them as he finds them in different groups and sex scenes, until he arrives to the one he fell for.

Four farm animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, leave their home to become musicians in Bremen. Based on the tale of the Brothers Grimm.

Father and son butt heads over a mutual girlfriend, mostly.

In childhood and youth, the three were "the inseparables." Luisa married Ángel, then two years later, she left him to marry Ramiro. After ten years, Ángel reappears, back from South America, broke and ill. Luisa is overcome with sentimentality and, over Ramiro's objections, takes Ángel into their house. Ángel is bitter, he and Ramiro have shifted from best friends to enemies. Luisa wants to be in love with both. Ramiro hopes he can wait out Ángel's declining health, and Luisa wants to heal Ángel through force of will. What is Ángel's plan? Observing the roiling emotions are Luisa and Ramiro's precocious young children. Who's in danger here?

A blind man, haunted by his past, who pays a visit to the monastery of Poblet. The goal is to help a friend steal the relics hidden by some Slovenian monks. There, however, he is reunited with the woman who has always loved him.

In the middle of the jungle, an explosion breaks a pipeline provoking a spilling over a mighty river. A BOA constrictor attempts to mitigate the disaster clinging the pipe, trying to stop this contamination. Everything gets worse when two men fight to death and seriously affecting the jungle environment, which will trigger the force of nature.

Murcia, Spain, 2016. An eccentric and humorous journey, on the shoulders of ironic giants, in the search of the most enigmatic places of this Spanish region: considering different hypotheses, the possibility of the existence of pyramidal structures is investigated, crossing sometimes the border of the chimerical and exploring beyond the limits that were previously considered impassable.

The driver Antonio, boasts of his sons: John, who shares his work as a taxi driver, Luisa, ladies hairdresser, Antonito, studying to be a lawyer, and Paloma, to be a housewife. But Antonio does not know that their children are not exactly as he thinks. The day Antonio finds out, confronts his wife and children and suffers a big disappointment. Since then no one in the family speaks to Antonio, and he believes that it is best to let them see for themselves that they made a mistake, but this does not result, since each will see their problems increased.

Triana and Cata's night of devilish plotting and chaos is narrated by Junior Healy's ingenious commentary. Fits of outrage, hysteria and constant ups and downs haunt the streets of Barcelona wherever these two figures go.

Raúl is exhausted after a whole day of moving into his new apartment. When he believes that he will finally be able to relax, a call for help will break his long-awaited tranquility.

A man and a woman meet at a gallery. Who knows where the conversation can lead?

Film director and screenwriter Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017), who in the sixties was the great innovator of Japanese cinema; and his collaborator, art director and screenwriter Takeo Kimura (1918-2010), recall how they made their great masterpieces about the Yakuza underworld for the Nikkatsu film company.

Luis Aguilar heads the cast in this story of a band of outlaws whose exploits are more fun than negligible.

Dreaming of a better life, a young woman leaves her country home and moves to the city where she only finds trouble.

Victim of the stagnant and hypocritical society of the 17th century, Martín de Ambel will be forced to live for 36 years within the walls of the Iglesia de la Concepción after committing murder to defend the honor of his family.

Tony wants to carry out a perfect robbery and get a lot of money during the celebration of the 24 Hours of Montjuic, a motorcycle race. To accomplish this, he counts with the complicity of Peter, a runner who wants to switch to professional level. Everything is carefully planned, but at the last moment a crime is committed and Peter is trapped in the house of the victim unable to get out as the gate has been locked. The only way to help Peter is that Tony gets a copy of the key that Carmen has, the girl who took care of the victim, before she returns home.

Segismundo Morey has spent his last few years facing the challenges imposed by Andrade’s rare disease. This medical condition, which affects his nervous and muscular system, has left a deep mark on his daily life and that of those around him. Over the years, Segismundo has had to overcome physical and emotional obstacles, dealing with difficulties in walking and moving normally. However, despite the constant challenges, he has found comfort and strength in the unconditional love and support of his family. Together, they have faced the adversities of Andrade’s disease, forming an indestructible bond that has been key in their shared journey.

Sabina lives with and from her parents in her thirties. Another "artist" who drags herself through a Madrid in crisis, surrounded by people even sadder and worst than herself. Chance gives him the opportunity to "kill it" - and why not?

A young Haitian immigrant living in Santiago de Chile, will see his life balance shaken after a series of unexpected events that will fuel a deep racist reactions in his environment.

In the hills of Costa Rica, Doña Carmen struggles to pass on her tribe's traditional ways of life. She must soon marry off her only granddaughter, and 70-year-old shaman Don Claudio lays his claim to the girl, who is only 12 and already impregnated by him. When the girl befriends the young son of a visiting anthropologist, it forces a collision between the modern world and the ancient one.

Marcos and Sofia are two thirty something friends from Barcelona that plans to make a film. But they don't have a penny and everyday life isn't glamorous at all. Marcos falls in love with a mysterious man he saw in the street.

Two military goons slaughter a young man's parents and siblings. A few years later, the same guys rape and murder his wife, then use their young son for target practice. Enough is enough.

Stories whose common denominator is the lack of money: a young man who wants to capture a ticket, a boy-scout who dreams of singing the lottery jackpot, a frustrated self-robbery and a playboy who marries the daughter of a butcher.

Nacho is an accountant, an average guy. At a party he meets Ana, a recently divorced young woman. Then they meet the charismatic bartender Sebastian, who starts flirting with both of them and they accept his invitation to spend the night at his place. A few days later, they decide to go on a weekend trip to a secluded farm. It seems like it will be a fun one-night-stand, until Sebastian confesses that he desires a long-term relationship with a man and a woman together. Sweet love story for those who believe in (unconventional) romance.

Jorge arrives Cuba accompanied by her nephew, trying to untangle a mess of skirts. The argument leads to a bizarre story in which the incredible Cuban Harley Davidson and passion for motorcycles are also actors.

An aspiring writer joins her counterpart, a short‑tempered woman seeking refuge by the sea — a place where they will meet, giving rise to a sensitive relationship that is always on the verge of fading.

Bad behavior travels from the bedroom to the classroom to the beach in these six short films from Spain, France, Germany, Australia and Afghanistan that follow wayward boys and men for whom mischief and sexuality go hand in hand.