Francesc Orella Movies

A woman is trying to unravel a mystery that she literally can no longer see in this thriller from Spanish filmmaker Guillem Morales. Julia (Belén Rueda) and her sister, Sara, have both inherited a medical condition that is slowly robbing them of their eyesight, with stress severely aggravating the condition. When Julia gets the news that Sara has died, she has a hard time believing the police report that she committed suicide, and she and her husband, Isaac (Lluís Homar), begin looking into the matter. As Julia examines the particulars of Sara's death, she begins to suspect the actions of Sara's neighbor Blasco (Boris Ruiz), his daughter, Lia (Andrea Hermosa), and an aged woman named Soledad (Julia Gutiérrez Caba). As Julia becomes more convinced that Sara's neighbors were involved in her death, unpleasant events begin happening all around her, and as she comes closer to unraveling the knots that have tied up Sara's death, Julia inches closer to total blindness. Produced in part by Guillermo del Toro, Los Ojos de Julia (aka Julia's Eyes) was an official selection at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A teenage boy who suffers from acute sensitivity to sunlight becomes the prime suspect in a horrific murder case after moving to a small village located in the mountainous region of northern Spain. Santi is a 16-year-old boy who lives in Barcelona with his mother, Julia. But while most folks who live in Barcelona love to bask in the golden rays of the sun, Santi has a rare genetic disease that causes him to suffer severe sunburn and eye irritation within minutes of exposure to ultraviolet light. Ideally, Santi would like to move to the shadowed town of Laponia in northern Sweden, but funds are tight and his mother cannot afford to make such a move. After a heartfelt discussion between mother and son, Julia agrees to move to Arrozas de Valdeon -- a remote village shaded by the high mountains on all sides. But strange things are happening in Arrozas de Valdeon; animals are disappearing, and rumors are circulating that something in the woods is responsible. One day, Santi witnesses the killing of a young boy. No one else was around at the time the murder occurred, making Santi the prime suspect in the eyes of the villagers. In order to avoid any further problems, local policeman Antonio asks Julia to keep an especially tight leash on Santi as an investigation gets under way. But Santi is determined to prove his innocence, and after making friends with a local girl named Angela, the pair sets out to locate the mysterious creature rumored to stalk the local woods. What Santi and Angela discover over the course of their investigation can only be described as tragic. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Daniel Cebrian's gritty coming-of-age drama Segundo Asalto (AKA Round Two, 2006), concerns Angel, a twenty-year-old loner and an aspiring boxer with extremely poor career prospects. When Angel encounters Vidal, a career criminal who aggressively tries to persuade him to take "the easy route" by participating in a series of bank robberies, he is virtually torn in two directions - forced to choose between the familiar environment of the boxing ring, and the seemingly "easy" route to which Vidal beckons. As a result, Angel's sense of stability begins to crack and weaken under this external pressure, and he starts to lose his bearings. But ironically, by responding to Vidal's proposition, Angel can determine his core values and goals and the direction of his life, and thus gain the inner strength necessary to move forward. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Heated office politics boil quickly to the surface as a tobacco-loving employee make a desperate plea for a smoking room in this observant comedy from writer/directors Julio Wallovits and Roger Gual. Working his days away in a Spanish branch of a large U.S.-based company, salary-man Ramirez (Eduard Fernandez) is enraged when a no-smoking ordinance goes into effect, leaving him no place to light up while on the clock. Though his bid for nicotine bliss initially divides employees' loyalties based solely on the subject at hand, petty grievances soon erupt into all-out war concerning twisted office politics. With employees going back on their initial support for the smoking room and paranoia soon giving way to shifting loyalties, it seems that everyone has their own agenda when it comes the how the company is being run. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi