Five essential films to see at the Film Festival

This Monday the new edition of the Film Festival begins in theaters in Spain. An important event for Spanish cinemas that, on its second date in 2024, aims to fill the seats taking advantage of the reduced price. Only 3.50 euros to watch a movie during the four days of this Festival, which will last between November 4 and 7.

Although the previous edition of this initiative, this year’s spring edition, recorded attendance data significantly lower than those of years ago, normally the autumn editions tend to perform much better in terms of spectator attendance.

Although not all theaters are part of this initiative, there are more than 300 cinemas throughout Spain that are affiliated. Four days of premiere films among which we recommend these five essential ones.

‘The room next door’

Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and the first film in English directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The next room It takes a look at a dignified death and traces a song to the power of empathy from an emotional perspective. The film has placed Almodóvar in the forefront of news since its premiere in Venice and with the Donostia award for his career.

Played by two great actresses, Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, the film captures the emotional vision of death that Almodóvar conveys from a story by Sigrid Nunez about two friends who accompany each other in the last days of one of them. Memories, friendship, loyalty, but also confrontation with the past are some of the themes explored in the film.

A naked and austere film, but very almodovarian in terms of colors, composition and spirit. Almodóvar in his purest form and a perfect choice to take advantage of the Film Festival.

‘Anora’

It seems that things are about winners. From the Venice Festival we move on to the Cannes Festival, a place from which Anora and its director Sean Baker came out with a bang with a Palme d’Or. This film is not just any romantic film. Its protagonist is a sex worker who has a fleeting relationship with the son of a Russian oligarch, who does not accept this relationship. A plot that explores themes such as dignity or vulnerability and offers an analysis of class differences and power relations.

A journey between comedy and romance that traces the complexities of the protagonist’s life and all the emotional struggles she must go through while navigating a world full of limitations and prejudices. In addition to addressing the issue of class, Baker also addresses sex work, with a raw and realistic portrait.

A film that has been talked about as the reverse of pretty woman. Without a doubt, one of the great films of the year that, at the moment and according to critics, has a good chance of winning an Oscar nomination.

‘The infiltrator’

The infiltrator collects the story of Aránzazu Berrade, the false name adopted by the first woman who joined ETA. A 22-year-old young woman who faced pressure and machismo in exchange for nothing and who was a key element in dismantling the terrorist group. With this film, his story is rescued and a figure until now unknown to the general public is named.

Directed by Arantxa Echevarría, this film creates a kind of mirror game where machismo is transversal. The protagonist, played by Carolina Yuste, stands out for the psychological burden of her mission, that of infiltrating without being discovered.

With a sober tone and a focus focused on the moral dilemmas of infiltration, this film offers a raw and dramatic look at a story that, according to its director, would have been known much earlier if it had been starring a man.

‘Hail Mary’

Hail Mary approaches the thriller psychological anchored to everyday life and motherhood. Its director, Mar Coll, tells the routine of a writer who has been a mother and who does not feel the same affection for her baby that other mothers seem to feel.

After tragic news about a mother who drowned her two babies in a bathtub, the protagonist of Hail Mary will not continue her motherhood normally. Whether she would be better off without her baby is one of the chilling questions she asks.

The film throws uncomfortable darts at the viewer with the focus on the complexities and shadows of motherhood, far from the most common idealization. A film that scares and awes, that also bets on body horror of those mothers whose bodies change completely when giving birth. A film that questions and criticizes the idealization of a human and everyday process that, as soon as it stops being how society conceives, points directly to those ‘bad mothers’.

‘Jury No. 2’

Clint Eastwood’s new movie. A thriller intelligent judicial that narrates the process in which a man is chosen as a popular jury. An ideal man, perfect husband and future father of a family who, upon arriving at court, realizes that he was the true culprit of the death of the victim they are judging. The question that assails you here is whether to surrender or not. The protagonist will try to convince the rest of the popular jury not to convict him without having to turn himself in.

Eastwood’s 40th film explores suspense and themes such as the importance of truth and lies. A film that achieves the goal of any filmmaker, that of keeping the viewer in the seat with intrigue and expectation. Morality, guilt and the failed judicial system are some of the themes that Eastwood takes advantage of in what could be his last film.

This thrillerhand in hand with Eastwood’s classic style, recovers the flavor of the 90s in a film that explores the moral ambiguity of complex characters.