The best of Spanish cinema
BY CYNTHIA FERNANDEZ ROICH
Two firemen run in the dark, their breathing so heavy it breaks the otherwise absolute silence. They’re anxious, running against time. Fade to black. ‘The Spanish emergency service attend 23 million calls per year,’ reads a disclaimer on the screen.
Back to the firemen, running frantically up the stairs. Fade to black again. ‘Barcelona firemen made 15,000 rescues.’ They reach their destination. The child at the end of the corridor is finally safe. But as he turns around, are they’
That’s the preview for [REC], one of the 32 films included in this year’s Spanish Film Festival, taking place from May 7 to 18 at Paddington’s Palace Academy Twin and Palace Norton Street, Leichhardt.
The Bondi View spoke to festival director Natalia Ortiz. ‘We want people who’ve never heard about the festival to come and see the great movies of Spain,’ she said. ‘The Spanish movie industry is not just Almodovar.’
Ortiz explains that breaking the ‘Almodovar circle’ is very difficult but over the festival’s 10 years, audiences have discovered new Spanish filmmakers, and the event is now well known among film buffs and lovers of all things Spanish.
The program offers a wide range of genres including the thriller Fermat’s Room, the comedy Suicides’ club and the drama Gabriel’s voice. Ortiz recommends the humorous Seven Billiards Tables which opens the festival and whose leading actress, Maribel Verdú, won the Goya award.
Many new filmmakers have won prizes after screening in the festival, Ortiz said, citing Alejandro Amenabar (Thesis) and Isabel Coixel (Things I have never told you) as examples. Coixel even had to shoot in New York because she could not secure the funding in Spain but ironically, she went on to become an award-winning filmmaker on her return home.
The 2006 festival attracted 14,000 people in Sydney alone but attendance is expected to be even higher this year.
For more information, tickets and the full program, visit their website at http://www.thespanishfilmfestival.com.
