World Cinema: Spanish & South American

Excellent Mexican movie comprising three linked stories, like Pulp Fiction, with controversial dog fights, and that blood on the hot grill scene!

Epic biopic of life in a Brazilian favela, describing the rise and fall of a ruling gang during the 70s. A Brazilian "The Godfather" with great cinematography and a story to rival "The Shawshank Redemption".

Two teenagers embarking on life's great adventure go on a road trip with a slightly more mature lady who has little left to live for. A touching story about living for the moment and making the most out of life that's a lot of fun Mexican style.

A child's fantasy in the middle of fascist post-civil war Spain. The beauty of this movie lies in the luscious fantasy world it portrays, but the plot is very weak, never developing the world as much as I, the viewer, would like and the story feels too short, destroying the fantasy world it creates by just suggesting it was all in the child's imagination. So, overall, it's fairly average.

Ultra-cheap prequel to Desperado, filmed in a small Mexican town in their native language. The low budget makes it seem more real in some ways, though in a cheesy way. It's not only a must see if you'd like to know how the El Mariachi character came about, but it's also a very good gangster flick in its own right.

Amiable characters and a pleasant tale of Cuban life, contrasting the young communist idealist with an older, gay intellectual artist.

It's a dog-eat-dog world in Venezuela. A story that follows the trials of a group kidnappers as well as their kidnappees, with a nice dose of humour and social commentary.

Infinitely better than the American version (Vanilla Sky) this was the first movie for years to give me nightmares!

A haunted house story that falls into all of the usual American cultural clichés of the young family moving into an old home, despite being a Spanish film. Although the effective scares are nothing new the plot does have an original conclusion.

Typical South American movie about two brothers who unwittingly getting involved with an organised criminal gang and a stripper. The full story is gradually revealed as we see it replayed through the eyes of each of the three main characters.

An average story of the destinys of five characters leading intertwined (love) lives in Madrid.

At the EIFF 2006 I was expecting more from Fabian's second (and last) movie following his fantastic debut with "Nine Queens". This movie was very average, slow, boring and lacking humour.

Ugly fat guy sleeps with prostitute in graphic sex scene. Slow, plot-less, with characters you couldn't care less about let alone identify with.