Xavier Elorriaga Movies

The debut film from the filmmaking team of Daniela Fejerman and Inés París, A Mi Madre le Gustan las Mujeres is a racy comedy starring Rosa María Sardà as Sofía. Divorced for years, Sofía gathers her three daughters, Sol (Silvia Abascal), Gimena (María Pujalte), and Elvira (Leonor Watling), together to celebrate her birthday and to make an announcement. It seems Elvira has fallen in love, which excites the girls until she reveals that it is a woman that she's been seeing. The title, A Mi Madre le Gustan las Mujeres, is Spanish for My Mother Likes Women. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

At first it looks as though the Basque revolutionary who has returned home from exile in Mexico has come back to help further the Basque separatist cause. However, while he pals around with his old ETA buddies and generally gets caught up on his family and the current situation, it becomes clear that he is there because he and his Mexican wife are not getting along. This film is Basque all the way through: the actors, director, screenwriter, setting and language are all Basque. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This is an off-beat, fast-paced, and well-wrought love story involving two very different people: Lucia (Assumpta Serna) is a computer operator whose sexual inclinations are alternately normal and kinky, and Arturo (Xabier Elorriaga) is a company representative from another town, with a wife and young child. After Lucia and Arturo meet, they start an affair that eventually takes on enough meaning for Arturo to split from his wife. In the meantime, Lucia is indulging her sado-masochistic tendencies on the side with at least one other partner -- knowing that if Arturo finds out, their relationship may be over. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Catalan director Antoni Ribas spent three years creating an epic in three parts, about three days in June, 1917 - a triple play that is successful in this first segment, handling the many factions active and bubbling over in Spain in 1917. The monarchy of Alfonso XIII was weakening so rapidly that he would leave the country permanently in 1931, Catalan nationalists were demanding independence for Catalonia, labor initiatives were in sympathy with the principles that stoked the Russian revolution, anarchists were shouting to be heard, and the military was not exactly a united front. The two leads in this story of an unstable nation in turmoil are a dedicated labor leader and a reserved army lieutenant. Action on all social levels - from the opera to the ghetto - keeps the drama moving at an interesting and fast pace. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

One man's inability to develop any serious, committed relationships with women is the focus of this standard romantic drama by Fernando Mendez-Leite. Pedro (Xabier Elorriaga) teaches literature in an all girls school and is clearly dedicated to his profession. After he meets Aurora (Marilina Ross) at a party, she turns out to be more than he can emotionally handle. An Argentinian exile, Aurora has all the passion that Pedro seems to have missed in his life. Deciding he would rather switch than change, Pedro goes looking for other women, but in all the wrong places. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The last president of Catalonia, Lluis Companys i Jover, escaped to France after the Spanish Civil War, but was returned to Spain by the Vichy (collaborationist) government in 1940. He was later tried and executed, presumably for treason. This Catalan and Spanish-language movie follows his story from the fall of Barcelona to Franco's troops, to the time of Companys' capture and imprisonment. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A phony evangelistic faith healer hires actors to pose with ailments and then appear cured. ~ Rovi

Political circumstances draw the people in this film into the ill-fated Spanish rebellion of 1909, which sought the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII. Set mainly in Cataluña and its capital Barcelona, the story begins in 1899 with soldiers returning from the Cuban front of the disastrous Spanish-American War, and it revolves around the romantic aspirations of two sisters who are swept up into the dangerous intrigues of the time. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

An angry man with a secret becomes a silent witness to the life of strangers in this drama from Spanish filmmaker Sebastian Cordero. Jose Maria (Gustavo Sanchez Parra) is a South American exile who has emigrated to Spain in search of a better life. Jose is working in construction when he meets Rosa (Martina Garcia), a fellow exile who is a maid for a wealthy couple who live in a rambling mansion that has seen better days. Jose has an uncertain temper and when a conflict with his boss turns violent, he finds himself wanted by the law. Adding to Jose's problems, he's in the country illegally, and when he turns to Rosa for help, she hides him in the attic of the home where she works. Rosa's employers (Concha Velasco and Xavier Elorriaga) are none the wiser as Jose slips in and out of the house's many hiding places, spying on their every move as he tries to satisfy his curiosity while remaining out of sight. But the couple has a son (Alex Brendemühl) who is attracted to Rosa, and when he tries to seduce her, the young man doesn't realize a jealous man with a violent streak is watching. La Rabia (aka Rage) received its North American debut at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi