The annual Spanish Cinema Line festival is taking place in Ukraine for the fifth time, bringing new movies from the Spanish-speaking world. The festival is showing in the six biggest cities of Ukraine, including Kyiv. This year’s program has five films: “Map of the Sounds of Tokyo,” “La Teta Asustada” (The Milk of Sorrow), “Carmo,” “8 Citas” (8 Dates) and “Gigante.”
Spanish director Isabel Coixet, the author of the teary tale “Elegy” with Penelope Cruz, this time sets her dramatic story in Tokyo. In “Map of the Sounds of Tokyo,” Japanese businessman Nagara’s daughter kills herself. He blames Spanish wine shop owner David for her death. Nagara’s business partner, who was secretly in love with the daughter, hires a killer, a girl named Ryu, to take revenge on the Spaniard. Ryu becomes the object of affection of a certain sound mixer who dreams to create a music map of Tokyo.
“La Teta Asustada” is also made by a woman – Peruvian director Claudia Llosa, whose previous film, “Madeinusa,” was featured in the last year’s Spanish Cinema Line fest. The main character of this story is Fausta, a young girl suffering from a disease called the Milk of Sorrow. She caught it from the milk of her mother, who was raped during pregnancy while living in Peru under fascist rule. Because of the disease, Fausta lives in constant fear and confusion and, when her mother dies, she chooses a drastic measure to avoid her mother’s fate.
“Carmo,” nominated for Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2009, is a road movie set in Brazil. The main character, Marco, is a handicapped Spanish smuggler, traveling across the country to sell his goods. When the bandits attack him, Marco is saved by a local girl, Carmo, and together they set out on a reckless and romantic journey.
Made by two young directors, Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Peris Romano, “8 Citas” is a romantic comedy involving a number of couples, all of them shown both in comic situations and touching moments. It essentially looks like a balanced collection of shorts.
“Gigante” won a number of prestigious awards – three of them at the Berlin Festival 2009, including the Silver Bear. Shy and lonely security guard Jara is remarkable in only one thing – he’s too tall to fit in the world of people of regular height. His dull life changes when he falls for the supermarket janitor Julia, whom he observes through the hidden security camera.
Ukraina
5 Horodetskoho, 279-6750,
www.kino-ukraina.com.ua
Feb. 25 - March 3. Tickets Hr 20-40.
