European Films

By its tenth anniversary this year, the festival has become a powerful promotional tool for national movies. But what sense does it make to open a bunch of Spanish productions at the same time, fighting to draw the audience’s attention when we already have to fight every single week with the imperialism of Hollywood’s movies? Holy Week is approaching and the major distributors are preparing to hit the box office with their big-budget movies. How many of the films actually shown in the official section at Málaga will survive through the next couple of weeks?

Let’s see how many of these movies, recently projected in Málaga, opened last Friday: we have four brand new releases: Lola, la película (Lola, the Movie directed by Miguel Hermoso); Atlas de geografía humana (Human Geography Atlas, by Azucena Rodríguez); Concursante (The Contestant) and Café solo o con Ellas (directed by Álvaro Díaz Lorenzo).

Four openings that need to be added to the two openings already released a week ago: The Backwoods from Koldo Serra and Teresa, el cuerpo de Cristo (Teresa, the Body of Christ) by Ray Loriga. There are also two new documentaries: 1% esquizofrenia (Julio Medem’s 1% Schizophrenia) and ¿Qué tienes debajo del sombrero? (What Have You Got Under Your Hat? by Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel). Does the audience really have enough time to actually go to see eight new films, although some of them have been benefited from good reviews and great promotion?

Time is running out, because 300 will bury the competition with a huge release on more than six hundreds screens. So, dear Spanish moviegoer, you have only two weeks before the following movies will be completely swamped, in order to boost business for Hollywood.

We have a wonderful winner (and he’s a newcomer): Félix Viscarret’s Bajo las estrellas (Under the Stars) was crowned with the most coveted prize, the Golden Biznaga for Best Picture. The movie is a tragicomic story about a washed-up trumpet player who returns to his hometown way up North and finds his place in the world, alongside with his brother. The film also contains a highly unusual, very funny friendship with the little child of the brother’s girlfriend. Bajo las estrellas also won Best Director, Best Actor (for Alberto San Juan) and Best New Director screenplay (also by Viscarret).We also have a runner-up: Ladrones (Thieves) went home with the silver Biznaga, scooping the Special Jury Prize. This pickpocket thriller with a brilliant cast was also a much-awaited debut by Spanish helmer Jaime Marqués. Another first-timer, Rodrigo Cortés, took the Critics Award for his hilariously funny satire concursante (The Contestant), a terrific and terrifying tale depicting the wild global banking system.

We have three winning newcomers in the row; should we have been talking about a Spanish New Wave? I guess so, because we have another debut, Rafa Cortes’ Yo (Me), which took a Special Mention of the jury because of its originality: the story of a man struggling to prove his innocence, which nobody doubts. Because the real problem is himself…

More kudos went to Antonio Hernandez’s El menor de los males (The Lesser Evil), which collected Screenplay and Supporting Actress prizes (the latter for the beautiful and very talented Verónica Echegui). The unusual incursion into film noir territory made by an inspired Manuel Lombardero in Tuya siempre (Yours Always) won Best Music and Best Supporting Actor for the funny and irreverent Nancho Novo.

And we can’t forget about the premiere of this festival: Lola, the Movie, a portrayal of the life of the very famous flamenco singer-dancer Lola Flores. An irritating Out of Competition biopic about the late diva with an effective production design and a great casting whose inclusion was only justified because it is an A3 production. Lola is full of clichés and suffers from an academic and rather dull direction. It completely wastes the talent and charisma of the main actress Gala Évora.

Málaga has changed its date, now running in March instead of May. Maybe we will be talking about an important increase in the domestic box office by the end of the year because of this change. In May, theatres are full of Hollywood’s blockbusters, released previously to US Memorial Day and on the same day worldwide.

Nevertheless, Málaga has become a must for the Spanish film market and a proper meeting place to take the pulse of Spanish national cinema.