Column: Film and TV
The Spanish Film Festival: a celluloid armada
In 2010, I wrote an article about the Palestinian Film Festival. That festival showcased the works of a fragile film industry that receives no government funding – a national cinema without a nation state – from mainly diasporic Palestinian directors. Likewise, the festival itself had no major government sponsorship and this was mirrored in the lack of publicity it received: I’m pretty sure I was the only writer in Melbourne covering it.
Cut to 2012 and the launch of this year’s Spanish Film Festival: there’s me sipping from goblets of sangria and stuffing my face full of delicate little pinxtos, surrounded by film critics. This festival, unlike the Palestinian and many other niche market offerings, has a lot of financial backing – you can literally taste it. Its major sponsor is the Catalonian pilsener Estrella Damm, and it receives government support from the Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs in Spain, the Spanish Consulate in Sydney and Melbourne, and the Spanish Embassy. (Not to mention SBS TV and Radio, World Movies and Singapore Airlines.) All this money is both sign and symptom of the historical strength and recent popular success of Spain’s national cinema.
It opened in Melbourne on 5 July with the Australian premiere screening of the (massively) internationally successful As Luck Would Have It (La chispa de la vida), starring Salma Hayek and directed by Alex de la Iglesia. The festival also includes the bizarre, deeply depressing animation Wrinkles (Arragus), based on a graphic novel about two men in a nursing home. In this, its fifteenth year, though, the festival is especially keen to display Spanish-language co-productions, allowing it to cherry-pick an impressive range of the best works from Argentina, Peru, Mexico and Colombia.
A standout film in this group is Chinese Take-Away (Un Cuento Chino) – an odd-couple tale from Argentinian director Sebastián Borensztein, set in Buenos Aires. In it, the beautiful, sad-eyed Ricardo Darin plays Roberto, a reclusive hardware store owner who reluctantly takes in a young Chinese man, Jun, played by Ignacio Huang, who is searching for his family but doesn’t speak a word of Spanish. Though infused with the cutesy, quirky atmospherics synonymous with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and, to a lesser extent, Michel Gondry, Chinese Take-Away does not feel derivative: this is a familiar but wholly engaging film. And, judging from the yelping snorts of laughter that came from my friend, I can honestly say that it has one of the best opening scenes of any film in recent memory.
Far more anachronistic is the closing night film, Sleep Tight (Mientras Duermes), a purported ‘white-knuckle’ thriller from Spanish director Jaume Balagueró. Cesar, played by Luis Tosar, is a concierge in Barcelona, dedicated to making those around him as wretchedly unhappy as he is. Using various means of psychological, and some physical, torture, Cesar tries to systematically wreck the lives of those living in the apartment block, especially a beautiful, spritely young woman named Clara (Marta Etura). But the Jarlsberg-like holes in the plot make it impossible to believe, even temporarily, in the world of this film. Suspenseful? Scary? Not really. At best, this is entertaining silliness: as far ‘thrills’ go, I’ve been startled more by dogs barking behind fences than I was watching Sleep Tight.
But this diversity of film styles and genres, with degrees of individual successes and failures, is also, paradoxically, the backbone of a strong film festival: variety increases the breadth of a festival’s potential audience share. This year alone in Melbourne there are at least ten region-specific film festivals: the Indian Film Festival, Audi Festival of German Films, the Japanese Film Festival, Lavazza Italian Film Festival, Fantastic Asia Film Festival, AICE Israeli Film Festival, the Korean Film Festival, the Arab Film Festival, African Film Festival and the Hola Mexican Film Festival.
In Australia, but especially Melbourne, a festival’s ability to procure first screening rights and to mix these offerings with more genre-based films that are also hard to find can mark it out from the crowd. The Spanish Film Festival is a particularly savvy example of this in action – banking on Salma Hayek as the opening night drawcard, it’s dotted throughout with Australian premieres, genre works and quirky co-productions. Thankfully, all those sponsorship dollars weren’t blown on sangria and pinxtos alone.
The Spanish Film Festival runs in Melbourne 5–15; in Sydney on 4–15 July; Brisbane 11–22 July; Adelaide 12–22; and Perth on 19–26 July.
‘Palestinian “Reel Time”‘ appeared in Arena Magazine No. 110, February–March 2011.
Kate Harper is a Killings Film and TV columnist. She studied cinema at the University of Melbourne and now works as a freelance writer.
3 Responses to The Spanish Film Festival: a celluloid armada
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Kill Your Darlings, No. 13
April 2013 The Stella Prize
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11:06 am, July 13, 2012
Dear Kate
I am writing to you as the Director and funder of the Spanish Film Festival in Australia and to thank you for such a great review. I am glad you like the pintxos and sangria as well as the program!!.
Unfortunately I need to correct some inaccurate information regarding your article. For the past 15 years the Festival has received very little government funding (about 5 to 10% of its total budget) as well as very limited sponsorship. The festival has survived mainly due to the volunteer help and support of many people and companies. Our festival has struggled year after year to pay its bills and this was finally done mainly by the final Box Office. This year we had to face a very difficult time to the point that we considered to cancel the event and that is one of the many reasons why we are happening 2 months latter than our usual May dates, we had less films and cut down in one capital city.
I am pretty sure other festivals struggle as much as we do but I think it is important not to mislead the readers and undermine the sacrifices the Festival´s team is making year after year to ensure that the Australian audience can enjoy the best of our cinema.
Again many thanks for your great review and support.
Natalia Ortiz
Festival Director
12:48 pm, July 13, 2012
Dear Natalia,
Thank you for your comments and I apologise if you felt my article was misleading in any way, that was certainly never my intention.
I don’t doubt that your festival struggles along with every other to attract audiences and to keep them coming back each year. I was trying to point out, though, that compared with many other niche-market festivals which receive no government funding or branding sponsorship, your festival does – this is not a criticism, but a point of comparison. I certainly take your point that the vast majority of your budget is not covered by funding or sponsorship – it would be fantastic I’m sure if it was!
I have attended and been involved with many film festivals in this country, and I understand that it’s extremely difficult for most to stay afloat each year. I’m very glad indeed that yours has and I hope you continue to find support for it into the future.
Again, thank you for your comments.
Kate Harper
5:38 pm, July 14, 2012
Thank you!!!