OVERVIEW – Remarkable Spanish Films
1. The Best Summer of My Life (2018)
This blockbuster Spanish film is the perfect comedy for the whole family, with a very patriotic humor and Leo Harlem as the host in the cast . The story follows a fanciful kitchen robot sales agent who must fulfill a promise made to his 9-year-old son Nico, who has gotten all A’s and now has an unforgettable summer vacation.
2. Things I Never Told You (1996)
At the beginning of her career, Isabel Coixet left us jewels of great sensitivity, like this film , starring Lili Taylor and Andrew McCarthy (the leading man in ‘The Girl in Pink’ by John Hughes). The story follows a home sales agent who, in his spare time, volunteers at the Hope Phone. He thus connects with a woman whose heart has just been broken, and who has decided to record a videotape where he tells her things he never told her.
3. The Wasteland (2022)
David Casademunt’s debut is a confined horror work whose potential lies in the duo Inma Cuesta (‘The Bride’) and Asier Flores (‘Dolor y Gloria’). Roberto Álamo (‘May God forgive us’), the father, has locked them up in a barracks in the middle of nowhere, literally. The days go by and, little by little, the family will realize that they are not alone: a mysterious creature has begun to haunt their home , getting closer and closer. Without a doubt, one of the best horror movies of 2022 .
4. Two (2021)
After ‘The photographer from Mauthausen’, the director Mar Targarona surprises again with this modest film with an absolutely intriguing starting point: a man and a woman who don’t know each other at all wake up stuck in the abdomen . A shocking and mysterious film that unravels in a disturbing way, in part thanks to the performances of its two sublime protagonists, Pablo Derqui and Marina Gatell.
If I were rich (2019) Hungry for Spanish comedy? One of the ones that is already on Netflix plays with an idea that we have all thought (or rather, dreamed of) at some time: that we will win the lottery . The problem for the protagonist (played by Álex García) is that he can’t tell anyone. Not even his partner (Alexandra Jiménez).
5. Errementari (The Blacksmith and the Devil) (2017)
Produced by Álex de la Iglesia , this film draws on the myths and monsters of the Basque Country in a disturbing and fascinating way. Directed by Paul Urkijo Alijo, it takes us to the mid-19th century, in a town in Álava, where a government commissioner investigates a strange event in a blacksmith shop run by Patxi the Blacksmith, who hides more secrets than he wants to confess.
6. The Laws of the Border (2021)
Daniel Monzón brings Javier Cercus’s novel to the big screen, set in the summer of 1978. Nacho Cañas, an introverted student and a bit of a misfit, is seventeen years old and lives in Girona. Upon meeting Zarco and Tere, two young delinquents from the city’s Chinatown, he begins to form part of “the Zarco gang” that leads him to live an unstoppable career of robber and robberies that will last throughout the summer and that will change his life forever. In the cast, Begoña Vargas, Chechu Salgado and Marcos Ruiz.
7. Who will sing to you (2018)
With echoes of Ingmar Bergman ‘s ‘Persona’ , this film by Carlos Vermut is one of the most fascinating in recent years. The story follows the relationship between Lila Cassen ( Najwa Nimri ), an iconic singer from the 90s who has lost her memory just when she was about to return to the stage a decade later, and Violeta (Eva Llorach ), an unconditional fan who sang her songs into karaoke and now he has to help her get back to being herself.
8. Antonio de Torre and Belén Cuesta
The one by Jon Garaño , Aitor Arregi and José Mari Goenaga takes us to the Spanish Civil War, but from a very different perspective: it is a story told from a hiding place at home, from the prison self-imposed by a Republican to avoid being shot after the victory of Francisco Franco. And it is a hiding place that lasts for decades. The film, which represented Spain at the Oscars (although it didn’t get the nomination), has incredible performances by Belén Cuesta and Antonio de la Torre . It is one of the best movies about the Spanish Civil War .
9. The Silence of Others (2018)
The documentary by Almudena Carracedo and Rober Bahar narrates the search for those people who disappeared during the Franco era and the attempts to confront those responsible. After decades of silence, Spanish society learned that hundreds of children were stolen before and during the dictatorship. But not only that, the film covers torture, extrajudicial executions, mass graves and a whole international judicial process, the so-called Argentine Complaint . Through their stories you can get to know the struggle of a country that wants to reconcile with its past. If he can get them to let him know his story.
10. Coven (2020)
It was one of the pleasant surprises of Spanish cinema in 2020, and managed to win five well-deserved Goyas for its artistic and musical setting, costumes and special effects. Directed by Pablo Agüero , it takes us to the Basque Country in 1609, where a judge, commissioned by the King to purify the region, arrests a group of young women and accuses them of witchcraft.
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