If your A-Z of Spanish cinema begins with Pedro Almodovar and ends with Penelope Cruz, then the CinEspaña Film Festival, which begins Thursday at Pioneer Cinema, is an ideal introduction to the diverse and vibrant cinema currently coming out of Spain.
The festival will show six recent Spanish productions, some of the best short films from the country and bring one of the country’s top actors to Moscow.
It will “show the Russian audiences the reality of contemporary Spain,” said Javier Garcia-Larrache, Counselor for Cultural Affairs in the Spanish Embassy, one of the organizers along with Instituto Cervantes and A-One Films. “All the works shown at the festival will show how Spaniards of this century feel, live and think.”
The highlight of the festival will be the appearance of Fele Martinez, one of Spain’s most famous actors who has starred in blockbusters such as “The Lovers of the Arctic Circle” by Julio Medem and “Bad Education” by Almodovar.
He will bring his latest film, “Carmo, Hit the Road,” a fast and furious road trip movie with a difference. Martinez plays a solitary smuggler in the Brazilian border country, who even though he is in a wheelchair comes to the rescue of a beautiful woman. He will take part in an open discussion about the film and contemporary trends of Spanish cinema after the showing.
All six films come from a new generation of Spanish directors and actors in an eclectic mix of genre and subject. This ranges from the dramatic comedy “Gordos,” directed by Daniel Sanchez Arevalo, which tells the story of people in therapy because of their dissatisfaction with their bodies, to Alberto Rodriguez’s thriller “After,” which follows three friends as they go out on the town on a night that will change everything.
Variety called “Gordos” “a daring, refreshingly fleshy take on society’s obsession with appearances.”
Despite its name, “Suicide Club” is a comedy, directed by Roberto Santiago, who has been dubbed the new master of Spanish comedy. This film also focuses on a therapy group, in this case, one linked to suicidal tendencies. But the group members’ lives change after discovering a book written by 19th-century author Robert Louis Stevenson.
“Thieves” is the award-winning directorial debut of Jaime Marques about a young pickpocket whose attempts to go straight are thwarted.
Finally, “Three Days,” the debut of director Javier Gutierrez and which was produced by Antonio Banderas, is a thriller that fuses two genres together with a giant meteorite heads toward the earth as a psychopathic killer goes on the loose.
All films will be shown in Spanish with Russian subtitles.
The CinEspaña Film Festival runs Jan. 21-29. Pioneer Cinema, 21 Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Metro Kutuzovskaya. Tel. (499) 240-5240, www.pioner-cinema.ru.