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The Club Dir. Pablo Larrain (2016)
In The Club everything is distressing. In the home for ‘repentance’ we find a chaplain who collaborated with the dictatorship, a priest accused of child abuse, another involved in illegal adoptions and a senile one who cannot…
Interview with Patricio Guzmán
Patricio Guzman’s film-making is full of paradoxes; subtle yet scathing, hard-hitting yet humane, highlighting the worst and the best of the human condition with an aesthetic brilliance that moves the viewer. Latinolife talks to…
El Botón de Nácar (The Pearl Button) Dir. Patricio Guzman (2015)
Using the poetic language that has become a trademark of the famed Chilean director, this sequel to his multi-awarded Nostalgia de la luz (Nostalgia for the Light, 2010) explores both small detail and big historical processes to…
Things you should know about Spanish Oscar Triumphs
After celebrating Latin America's successes at the Academy Awards, we couldn't carry on without bringing you Spain’s most successful Oscar-winning films and individuals within the film industry.
Things you should know about Latin American Oscar Triumphs
Do you remember the days when Latino artists weren’t allowed to sing their songs on mainstream TV because ratings would drop? I know right? Hard to imagine, but it did…Back in 2005, when Jorge Drexler was nominated for an Oscar…
Things You Should Know About...Latin American Political Cinema
The plethora of social documentaries and politically-committed films that came out of Latin America between the mid-1950s and mid-1970s brought Latin American film onto the focus of world critics. Of course, to reduce the region…
Dark Soul - Interview with Spanish Film Director Alberto Rodriguez
Last year, Alberto Rodríguez took home ten Spanish Academy Goya prizes for his suspenseful detective noir Marshland, and this summer it premiered in the UK. It is sure to appeal based solely on its intense but measured action,…
Brazil's Social Realism?
If Ken Loach were Brazilian, he may well have made a film like this. THE SECOND MOTHER is about a set of social rules which have been in place in Brazilian and Latin American culture since colonial times, and which continues to…
The Second Mother (2015) Dir. Anna Muylaert
A hugely enjoyable film exploring the complex relationship between Latin America's middle class and its live-in maids in a digestible, humorous and touching way.
Marshland (2015) Dir. Alberto Rodríguez
Critically acclaimed Spanish director Alberto Rodríguez’s latest film, Marshland, was a box-office hit in Spain, winning a spectacular ten Spanish Academy Goya awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best…
Top Ten Mexican Movies Ever
With the recent plethora of Mexican actors, directors and other creatives having invaded Hollywood and producing some of America's biggest grossing blockbusters it's easy to forgot that Mexico has long been a creator of…
Storm in the Andes (2014) Dir. Mikael Wiström
This year's London leg of the International Human Rights Watch Festival include a compelling selection of Latin American films. Of the many harrowing conflicts besetting Latin America in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, that of Peru…
Wild Tales (2014) Damian Szifron
A box office and critical hit, both in Latin America and outside, this anthology of short stories linked by themes of rage and restraint in post-modern living, is Argentina's most recent example in a long tradition of…
Futuro Beach (2014) Dir. Karim Aïnouz
Shot in 2012 in Brazil and Germany, Futuro Beach touches on the themes of expatriation, nostalgia and family links. Its contemplative tone offers an impactful and realistic sense of time passing by. Futuro Beach is now out on DVD.
Primal Screaming - an interview with Damián Szifrón
Not only do the Mexicans seem to be holding a curious monopoly over Oscars in recent years, hardly a year passes when an Argentine film is not in the running for Best Film in a Foreign Language. This year it was the turn of…
Top Ten Classic Latin American Films
The iconic films that have often launched the careers of Latin America's top directors, who later became global household names, here is our selection of Latin American cinema classics.
5 Reasons to Love...Ricardo Darín
Catapulted to international fame with his performance in the Oscar-winning Argentine Film The Secret in their Eyes, Ricardo Darín has been one of the Spanish world's most respected and sought-after actors for decades, not to…
Lita Stantic: The ‘Producer’ of New Argentine Cinema
The career of Argentine film director, scriptwriter and producer Lita Stantic spans for longer than four decades, a time during which Argentine cinema has established itself as a reference among national cinemas. Despite having…
Radical Aristocracy - A Tribute to María Luisa Bemberg
Celebrated at the Argentine Embassy last week, María Luisa Bemberg is one of Argentina’s most famous film directors; her best known film Camila being nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Described as both a "radical…
Franco Lolli: a new name in Latin American cinema?
Selected by both Cannes critic’s week and to the BFI London Film Festival, Franco Lolli’s feature debut Gente de Bien, has received widespread critical acclaim. We talked to the young Colombian director during his screening in…
Gente de Bien (2013) Dir. Franco Lolli
The feature debut from the Colombian director Franco Lolli, Gente de Bien is a sensitive, unsettling and realistic piece of social reflexion. It narrates a parent-child relationship against the backdrop of Colombia’s wealth gap,…
Spain's Film Intellectual: interview with Ramon Luque
A lover of Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman, Spanish director Ramon Luque is a great Film intellectual, known just as much for his nine books than for the three films that he's made. His latest film, the critically acclaimed…
Historias de Lavapies (2014) Dir. Ramon Luque
Historias de Lavapiés is Ramón Luque’s third release which opened this year’s London Spanish Film Festival. It is a truthful, beautiful snapshot into Spain’s multicultural society and continuing economic difficulty. Few films…
Five Reasons to Love... Mexican Comedy
Ask a British person what they know about Mexico and they might mention tacos and Cancún: for those unacquainted with the country, its image is inextricably linked to bean-laden delicacies and ‘Spring Break’ debauchery. However…
Five Reasons To Love....Almodovar's Sex Fetishes
Internationally acclaimed director Pedro Almodovar, who released his latest film I'm So Excited in 2013, has demonstrated he is an all-embracing, multi-faceted film-maker to say the least. Combining elements of comedy and…
Lucia Puenzo: making her own name in Argentine cinema
Argentine film director Lucía Puenzo speaks to Santiago Oyarzabal about Wakolda, her other projects and her ideas.
Wakolda (2013) Dir. Lucia Puenzo
The latest film by Argentine director Lucia Puenzo in which themes of adolescent attraction and the place of beauty, uniqueness, difference, and normalisation serve as a bridge between past and present, set in the ever…
The Golden Dream 2014 Dir: Diego Quemada-Díez
Gripping and aesthetically beautiful, but always honest and uncompromising – The Golden Dream is an unusual and impactful depiction of US immigration. Starring: Karen Martínez, Brandon López, Carlos Chajon, Rodolfo Domínguez
Sidelines: Four Films about Football, Latin America and Human Rights
Ana Ryle spent a weekend at Amnesty UK’s first football film festival at Hackney Picturehouse. It aimed to bring together the worlds of football and human rights. Four of the thought-provoking films shown - Looking for Rio,…
Heli (2013) Dir. Amat Escalante
Keeping viewers on the edge of their seats, from the very first scene in which a bound-and-gagged man is carried to the top of an overpass and hung for all to see, his acclaimed third film by self-taught director from Guanajuato…
Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America (1935 - 2009)
It is 11 years since Mercedes Sosa - the singer and exponent of what became known as 'nueva cancion' - died, but her musical legacy lives on, not just in her native Argentina or even Latin America but across the globe.…
CUBAN FURY (2013) dir. James Griffiths
Starring British comedy actor Nick Frost, a warm-hearted if not warm-blooded salsa comedy; representing more the awkward British take on salsa than its true corazon.
The Fire Within
One of the most successful comedy actors of recent years, Nick Frost plays a depressed office worker in his latest film, who is forced to discover and unleash his ‘Cuban fury’ in order to overcome a bullying boss and …yes,…
Day of the Flowers (2013) Dir. John Roberts Starring Carlos Acosta
Our very own Cuba aficionado Kerry Ribchester, went to the Day of the Flowers premier to see if all the fuss about the new Latin-infused chic flick, starring Cuba's very own global ballet icon Carlos Acosta, was all it…
Filming Cuba
Next week sees the release of 'Day of the Flowers' - a comedy drama about two Scottish sisters travelling with their late father’s ashes to Cuba, and starring Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta. In this interview, BAFTA…
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