Discoveries from Spain World Cinema

A young schizophrenic who felt threatened by a presence he was unable to define turns up gruesomely dead in his bathtub

Through a cell phone and isolated in the observatory on La Palma, Fran must face the last thing any parent wants to hear.

As the coronavirus upends their lives, two detectives doggedly pursue those responsible for an abduction they realize is part of a sinister pattern.

Teodoro, a Spanish engineer working as a professor in the United States, returns to Spain to enjoy a sabbatical year.

The spotlight's on Parchís, a record company-created Spanish boy/girl band that had unprecedented success with Top 10 songs and hit films in the '80s.

Alex, a young actress, is sexually assaulted at a New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house. That night, she never manages to see the face of her aggressor, a fact that will end up eating away at her. Throughout the following year, she will have to face feelings of guilt, disgust and shame. While Alex tries to channel all her pain through theatre, where she takes on the role of the famously vengeful Medea, her brother, Adrian, must face the guilt he feels at not having been able to protect his sister and his impulse to let himself be carried away by his own decisions. What were once the typical conflicts you might expect between any siblings, give way to much more extreme and complex emotions.

Spain, 1974. A teenager and his father are traveling in a car that is the only property they have. Their life is a continuous move by desolate coastal apartments in the tourism low season. When forced to change route and get away from sea, their lives will change dramatically.

Four people traveling in a van run over a lone woman while she is walking in the dark down a country road. After loading her into the vehicle to take her to the nearest hospital, they notice that she is behaving rather strangely. The occupants of the van soon realise that the time has come to fight for their lives, and together they agree on one very simple rule: "do not sit next to her."

Ismael breaks into the house of a fine art restorer and shoots the homeowner dead, leaving her daughter orphaned and traumatized for life. Years later, Ismael is working in a bar where he sees the daughter again. Paranoid that she has recognised him and will report him, he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, demanding that her hospital pay a ransom for her release. As he spends more time with her, a strange bond develops that causes him to delay the ransom request or fulfil his threats of throwing her in front of a train. But he can’t delay forever…

A story, set in Rome of 44 A.D., concerning the amorous and political intrigues of the evil Empress Messalina, the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, and her eventual hounding to death.

A political prisoner in a South American dictatorship escapes and is pursued throughout the country by a bloodthirsty dog.

Like a love song to differences, Turu, the Wacky Hen tells the story of a creature who, due to her particular appearance, becomes the object of ridicule for the rest of the henhouse. Her wiry legs and featherless back don’t startle Isabel, an ex music teacher who picks her for being so special. Turuleca doesn’t lay eggs because her hidden talent is another: she talks, she sings and she dances, giving it her all. Turu, the Wacky Hen is a full-color, animated party that invites us to move our bodies to its musical numbers, making us sing verses that have the power to turn us into children once again, if only for a little while.

Bilbao, Spain. After breaking up with Elisa, his girlfriend for several years, Txema meets Claudia, a gorgeous Argentinian girl, in a very awkward situation. They become friends so soon and so easily that Txema misinterprets Claudia's feelings for him.

Spain, 1970s. A Clockwork Orange, a film considered by critics and audiences as one of the best works in the history of cinema, directed by Stanley Kubrick and released in 1971, was banned by the strict Franco government. However, the film was finally premiered, without going through censorship, during the 20th edition of the Seminci, the Valladolid Film Festival, on April 24, 1975. How was this possible?

Manel, a physicist working on his PhD thesis, accidentally fall in love with Elena, a young model and aspiring actress.

After the death of their father, three siblings return to the family home where they grew up. They intend to sell it and follow their very different paths. But as memories surface in every corner, a fear of getting rid of the past and an impulse to reunite grows in them. As a last tribute to their father, there may still be time to make up for lost time and the house may witness new stories.

A woman named Amanda lies stricken, far from home. A young boy named David questions her, trying to make her remember. She's not his mother, he's not her son. As her time is running out, he helps her unravel a powerful, haunting story of obsessive jealousy, an invisible danger, and the power of a mother's love for her child.

A woman visits her former lesbian lover who's stuck in a boring marriage. They begin an affair. The lover's husband and his best friend are also having affairs - with each other's wives. The girls decide to seduce the other wife.

Raised in a repressive era where sexuality was taboo, Ana, Patricia, and Mayela found their understanding of womanhood based on unspoken rules and implicit impositions. Now, their fearless voices incarnate in a single 65-year-old woman, who revisits a kaleidoscopic life of intertwined memories, secrets, and hidden desires.

The last train travel of the year from Barcelona to Madrid, suddenly stops by a voltage drop in the middle of nowhere during a fierce snowstorm. Because of the peculiarity of its passengers, will begin to emerge hilarious conflicts between them.

Marisol is the national rhythmic gymnastics coach, methodical, demanding and authoritative. The World Championship is approaching and she places all her gold medal hopes on Angelica, the team's most promising newcomer. Two weeks before the final, Marisol discovers that her husband is having an affair with a much younger woman with whom she is expecting a child. Marisol does not contemplate failure, so she embarks on a desperate race to win him back, without taking into account her motives and feelings. Her pain is transferred to her tatami, where she becomes even more implacable towards Angelica, in whom she places her hopes of success. At this point, winning gold is all that's left for him.

This spaghetti western presents a fictitious version of the often filmed legend of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Billy becomes innocently an outlaw while protecting his mother, but then turns into a trigger happy killer. When he falls in love he tries with the help of Pat Garrett, a fatherly friend, to change back. However, circumstances force Billy to become violent again and it is Garrett who is credited with the killing.

A journey of years through many countries and film festivals; a nostalgic, adrenaline-fueled and rock-spirited immersion into the universe of cinephilia, in search of genre specialists, fans and filmmakers who speak of their shared passion for fantastic cinema; a whole international spiritual community united under the cathartic shadow of horror.

Maria has just moved into a decaying flat in a poor neighbourhood. She left her family in the countryside because she could no longer stand her father's authority. Pregnant by a man who refuses to see her, Maria gets by as a cleaning-woman. When her father is brought to the city for an operation, her mother moves into her flat.

A documentary about faith through an essay on aging and the fear of death. A story about a group of elders in a ghost town and their lifetime struggle for the respect of their culture and their different ways of understanding faith, where the need of water is the main element that supports their demands and ancient culture is presented as an heritage for new generations to come, that if their home town survives after they are gone. A film that portrays youthfulness as hope, while the main characters reminds us all that nothing is more powerful than our own will and that there is no such thing as a lost cause.

France, 17th century, under the reign of Louis XIII. Dogtanian is an impetuous and innocent peasant from Gascony, as well as a skilled swordsman, who travels to Paris with the purpose of making his dream come true: to join the Corps of Muskehounds of the Royal Guard. (Edited version of the 1981 animated television series Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds.)

A religious organization interferes with the life of a terminally ill girl.

MG, a policewoman who has been expelled from the Corps due to the problems with alcohol and drugs that she has had since the loss of her son, receives a call from a man asking her to look for Macarena Gómez, a popular TV actress.

Maria, a new mother and writer, is transfixed by the disturbing case of a woman who drowned her infant twins, prompting her own journey through the complexities of motherhood.

Commissioner Mendoza must join forces with the honorable civil guard, to stop the activities of a network of drug traffickers with international contacts that intend to act in Spain.

When the retired seventy-seven years old hypochondriac widower Fred moves to an apartment in Madrid, his temperamental daughter Cuca has an incident with his next door neighbor, the elder Argentinean Elsa. Later, they meet each other and Elsa seduces Fred with her reckless behavior and view of life and they have a romance.

Magdalena makes a journey to find her son, who has disappeared on his way to the Mexican border with the United States. Her odyssey takes her to meet Miguel, a man recently deported from the US. They start to travel together, Magdalena looking for her son, and Miguel hoping to see his mother again.

411 BC, Sparta and Athens are in a endless war, but Lisistrata, a beautiful woman has an idea to stop the fight, and convinces all the women to do it: no sex until there is peace.

Spanish Civil War, May, 1938. Four villages in Castellón, Benassal, Albocàsser, Ares del Maestrat and Vilar de Canes, were bombed from the sky and ravaged. 38 people died. Inhabitants never knew for sure who piloted the planes responsible for such atrocity, although the rebel propaganda attributed the act to the republican side. Now, 80 years later, the truth is finally exposed.

Federico, an executive of national television, begins to suspect that his wife Elena, an actress who retired prematurely after marriage, is cheating him with another man. The symptoms are that Elena sighs, looks far into heaven and is aware of the exact time a comet passes. In other words, she expects her most beautiful night.

Buenos Aires, Argentina. A luxurious van is parked on the sidewalk. A man enters with the purpose of stealing whatever he can find, but when he wants to leave, he cannot. The doors do not open, the control panel does not respond: the van has become an armored box and he is trapped like a mouse.

Alejandro, a freshman, and Sofia, who’s doing her thesis, meet in college. They build an asymmetrical relationship: he’s in love while she just wants to see her sexual desires fulfilled.

A home invasion thriller starring a dog trainer trying to modify a human's brain.

Laura has spent years looking for her sister Sara who went missing in the depths of the jungle in the Congo. Neither the NGO she works for, nor the embassy, have news on her whereabouts until a photo appears of Sara in a mining town. Apparently, Sara is being held captive by The Hawk, the fearsome rebel leader who controls the mafias behind the prized mineral coltan.

Julia, an attractive and elegant woman, is a renowned cellist devoted to her music. After years of intermittent pain in different parts of her body, Julia is finally given the diagnosis: fibromyalgia, a chronic medical disorder that has no known cause or cure. She soon finds herself submerged in a personal state of hell, struggling against her own body.

A pregnant woman, who is taking care of her son with development problems, is at her breaking point when a caregiver from the Philippines steps into her life. Diana suspects that she’s using voodoo against her after the quick improvements of her son.

Several murders have taken place in London. All the victims are prostitutes and the murderer is using the same techniques as Jack the Ripper. Peter Dockerman, an ex-acrobat and husband of one of the victims is the prime suspect. But whoever the killer is has cannibalistic tendencies and if Scotland Yard doesn't solve the murders quickly the evidence just might be eaten!

Ecological comedy about two brothers. Alejandro and Guillermo are two Asturian brothers lovers of Nature since they were children. Alejandro is a renowned zoologist who investigates wildlife and lives in the trees like an animal. Guillermo is an internationally renowned biologist, who has received numerous awards. One day he discovers a green sprout in Antarctica and, convinced that the battle is lost, leaves everything and goes back to Asturias. Once there, he looks for his brother Alejandro in the forest where they live. Since the arrival of Guillermo to the forest, the sentimental ecosystems of the characters will be altered.

A figure skater seeks wisdom from a local sage to cure her diabetes.

Leo is a single, womanizing guy who lives day to day in a tiny beach town in the Canary Islands. One day one of his old flings, Julia, reappears to leave a baby of a few months in his arms and she disappears at the next morning.

Luzaida Cuevas spent years doubting that her infant daughter Delimar had died in a fire. When she spots a girl resembling Delimar, Luzaida battles skeptics to prove the child is hers.

Led by an incompetent Lieutenant, a troop of soldiers is on the Tomahawk Trail in Apache territory. When he lets the Indians steal their horses and gets slightly wounded in a skirmish, Sergeant McCoy takes over command. McCoy successfully gets them to the fort only to find all the soldiers have been murdered by the Apaches. He prepares the troops for an attack knowing if they survive the Lieutenant plans to have him court marshaled.

This documentary explores Yurena's meteoric rise to fame as Tamara, the media frenzy she faced in the 2000s and the present-day lives of her TV rivals.

Azucena, a woman in her thirties, approaches Julio, a teenage boy living in a group home, for reasons he doesn’t understand. As they spend time together, an uneasy closeness grows, changing the shape of a bond neither expected to find.

Desdemona lives on an isolated island with her strange family: her father Mario, her stepmother Dulcinea and her mentally challenged sister Paulova. As the only inhabitants on the island loneliness and desolation engulf all members of her family. Desdemona tries to ward off her boredom by taking long walks along the beach or engaging in acts of self-gratification. She often tries to seduce her own father Mario to engage in acts of a sexual nature. Their daily routine is interrupted by the arrival (by boat) of a robust male stranger who brings friction into Desdemona's family.

Emmanuelle is recently reunited with her husband, but at the next party, she gets drunk and strips nude for his friends. He returns to his lover. Later, a sober Emmanuelle tries to redeem herself, but her husband refuses to forgive. She travels to see him, gets raped on the way by two delinquents, and enters a life of vicious sex to forget him.

Suave gambler Clay Watson, cocky sharpshooter Moses Lang, and wily thespian Edwin Kean are a trio of criminals in the Old West. The motley threesome are forced to form an uneasy alliance in order to find $400,000 dollars in stolen money.

A French writer documents the seductive power of the beautiful Carmen, who has enchanted José, a young soldier, awakening his most fervent passions leading to tragedy. A path chained to obsession, jealousy, betrayal, and blood.

Two men who were "best friends" while growing up together and into their 20's, reconnect after years apart. On the surface, their lives have gone in opposite directions, one married, successful, respectful and settled; the other divorced, footloose, unemployed and prowling. The narrative is not linear but vertical as simple get together to "have a drink" leads to a nihilistic descent into macho hell. The only thing that survives their reunion is their love for one another.

Josephine Nilsson dies trying to terminate her second pregnancy after giving up for adoption her first child, Carl T. Dreyer. A gender and class story about the clandestinity of female desire.

Studying under a disciple of Aleister Crowley, the leader of an upper class group invokes a supernatural force that slowly devours the village of Marienbad and its inhabitants, threatening to spread beyond its geographical limits. The mayor from the town nearby commissions the building of a dam which would flood the valley and therefore submerge the village forever sealing the evil force under water after leader and his followers were incapacitated to be kept from escaping. However, fate ensured the leader's freedom as he remained in the depths when the waters covered Marienbad. Now 40 years later an array of disappearances and deaths in mysterious circumstances are threatening the town next to the reservoir that now covers Marienbad.