Latin & Spanish Film Roadshow
Posted By Robin Menken
Outsider Pictures presents Award-winning Latin & Spanish Film Roadshow, a unique showcase of award-winning Latin and Spanish films that can be viewed either individually or as a 1-week long mini-festival of sorts – of five award-wining films screened at Cannes, San Sebastian, Berlin, Karlovy Vary with 50+ International festival awards between them.
The films will screen individually in rotation each day of the week, and can be seen separately or by purchasing a $40 pass to attend all films.
Immerse yourself in the beauty of Latin cinema and a week-long celebration of captivating stories and unforgettable experiences!
This unique collection opens exclusively at the Cinema Village in New York on July 19, and the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles on July 26, with more cities to follow.
“Creatura”-Catalan filmmaker Elena Martín Gimeno’s unsettling film “Criatura” uncovers the roots of a woman’s troubled and troubling sexuality.
This is the second time Gimeno wrote starred and directed herself in a feature film (“Julia Is” 2017).
Gimeno and screenwriter, Clara Roquet based their raw, honest screenplay on countless interviews with woman discussing their sexuality. The main reveal is owning woman’s desire, an impulse which makes men, and still to some degree, woman very ‘uncomfortable.’
Their brave film, which won Best European Film at the 2023 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, succeeds because director and lead actress Elena Martín Gimeno is willing to become transparent.
Focussing on specifics of one woman’s life, she opens up the still very necessary dialogue about the inconvenient truth of women’s sexual desire. Men are afraid of women’s desires.
We’re habituated to watching sex onscreen, frequently abusive or misogynistic sex. This is something new.
Present day Mila (Elena Martín Gimeno) and her obliging boyfriend Marcel (Oriol Pla) move into a house on the rugged Costa Brava to be closer to his new teaching job..
Her grandmother has recently died. Promising to visit soon Mila’s parents Gerard (Alex Brendemühl), and Diana (Clara Segura) move out leaving the summer house to the younger couple.
It's the site of all her childhood summer vacations.
As Mila grapples with her difficulty having sex with Marcel, the home launches a series of memories.
One night horny Mila initiates sex, luring Marcel away from his book. Marcel gets into it, but Mila stops him to stare fixedly into his eyes. Again and again. He gives up. What does she want?
The next morning she's covered with hives.
Since childhood she's suffered this hive reaction.
Her only relief is her mother bathing her in healing sea
water.
It's apparently business as usual, a frustrating cycle of seduction and rejection. Mila desires, her body rebels.
Marcel withdraws from the psychological whiplash.
Marcel leaves. He's gone all night, supposedly hanging with his boys in Barcelona.