Montserrat Salvador Movies

As a dog is abandoned one snowy winter night near a local bus stop, three characters awaiting the bus do their best to ignore the situation. Thus begins Judith Colell's film 53 dias de Invierno (53 Winter Days). The film subsequently delves into the life of each passenger, and becomes a trio of stories on conflict - the first psychological, the second emotional, and the third social. Because Colell recounts the tales one-after-another but never intersects or overlaps the narratives per se, her film becomes a foray into the hidden stories that lurk behind the eyes of three strangers, whom we might come across on any random street corner - and who only happen, cosmically, to be sharing the same bus stop at the same moment but may never know one another. In the psychological segment, we meet Mila (Mercedes Sampietro), a local teacher reeling from an assault at the hands of a student, who has taken a yearlong sabbatical to recover; the arc of her story involves her gradual attainment of self-assertion and courage. Segment number two - the segment on emotional conflict - follows Valeria (Aina Clotet), a cellist immersed in an adulterous relationship with her married professor, Hugo (Joaquim de Almeida). The instructor decides to break off the relationship but sends his wife to do the dirty work; meanwhile, Valeria's mother (Silvia Munt) sits at home and struggles to contend with her husband's abandonment of her. And in the third segment (which pertains to social conflict), married security guard Celso (Brendemuhl), struggles to make ends meet - a goal that looms impossible as he discovers his wife, Angela's, (Maria Pau Pigem) expectancy of twins. He foolhardily tries to pocket a necklace from the department store where he works, as a gift for his wife, but is promptly discovered, fired, and thrown out onto the streets - where the terror of confessing his misdeeds to Angela keeps him from heading home. Gemma Ventura penned the script. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Scripter Sergi Belbel and director Ventura Pons based this film on Belbel's 1991 play, structured in a fashion similar to Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde (1900) and Richard Linklater's Slacker (1991): Two character set-ups feature one character from each scene turning up in the next scene, and so on, as a variety of people parade through diverse romantic and sexual situations. Cars careen about via an altered camera speed to provide the linkages between the 11 interlocking scenes. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This uneven historical drama tries but fails to give any insight into the cultural differences between Arabs and Christians in 12th-century Spain. The harem is unattractive and is erratic, not erotic. The feature is further plagued by poor production and lack of a coherent storyline. ~ Dan Pavlides, 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