Carmelo Gómez Movies

Director Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo's Goya-nominated rural film noir employs a Rashomon-like storytelling technique to detail the journey of a Speleologist and an experienced potholer who emerge from a cave expedition to make a horrifying discovery. Castilla-León is a dying rural village in the middle of nowhere. When cave explorer Esteban (Judith Carmelo Gómez) learns of a newly discovers cavern in the area, she sets out with her experienced assistant (Walter Vidarte Alameda) to make an official document of it. Upon emerging the pair learns that Esteban's girlfriend has been assaulted, and sets out on a violent revenge mission that sets into motion a tragic series of events in the impoverished local communities. Told from six different perspectives, The Night of the Sunflowers explores the notion that the truth is never as simple as black and white. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Written and directed by Alex van Warmerdam, Grimm is an absurdist, decidedly black take on the Hansel and Gretel story. Set in modern day Holland, Grimm centers around siblings Marie (Halina Reijn) and Jacob (Jacob Derwig), who were sent to the forest under the pretext of gathering firewood while, unbeknownst to them, their impoverished family left for parts unknown. Before long, Marie and Jacob learn of their abandonment; all that is left from their parents is a brief note advising them to go to Spain and take up residence with their uncle. The first setback comes in the form of a smarmy farmer (Frank Lammers) who forces Jacob to have sex with his obese wife (Annet Malherbe). Shortly afterwards, Marie turns to prostitution, but Jacob intervenes before she goes too far. Eventually, the siblings find a moped and take off for Spain -- only to find out that their uncle has died. When a wealthy surgeon (Carmelo Gomez) falls for Marie, the broke siblings' prospects seem to be looking up once gain. Unfortunately for them, the ultimate consequence of Marie's quickie marriage is nothing either of them would have imagined. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Veteran Spanish filmmaker Mario Camus directed La Playa De Los Galgos (The Beach of the Greyhounds) from his own script. Pablo (Gustavo Salmeron) tends to his elderly mother and is forever taking steps to find his missing brother. One day he meets Berta (Claudia Gerini), whom he becomes involved with. They seek out a psychiatrist named Dubbini (Miguel Angel Sola), as he may possess information on Pablo's brother. Both men fall madly in love with Berta, but her violent past will haunt everyone in the film. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A former football star finds himself weighing difficult options in this period drama from Spain. Ramiro Forteza (Carmelo Gomez) was once the goalie for a championship soccer team in Madrid, but as Spain struggles to get back on its feet following the Civil War, he's reduced to traveling the countryside, hustling money from strangers who think they can get a penalty kick past him. Ramiro finds himself in a small Asturian town, where he becomes infatuated with Manuella (Maribel Verdu), a single mother who watches over her young son Tito (Adrian Ramirez) and her brother Nardo (Eduard Fernandez), who is still nursing wounds he suffered as a soldier with the Resistance. Manuella also has to contend with Lopez (Julio Velez), a member of the Civil Guard who makes no secret of his sexual interest. Ramiro decides he'd like to stick around for a while, so he takes a job doing chores for Don Constantino (Roberto Alvarez), a rough-hewn but good-natured Catholic priest; soon, though, Ramiro gets a troubling offer from Sgt. Andrade (Antonio Resines), leader of the local branch of the Civil Guard. Andrade would like Ramiro to represent the Civil Guard in a local penalty kick competition, and while he's in no position to refuse, he's also not sure he wants to accept. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Set amidst the austere volcanic splendor of Spain's island of Lanzarote, this period piece successfully vacillates between drama and high tragedy as it follows the romantic obsession felt by two very different men for an innocent but seductive local girl. The tale is set in a ramshackle island village during the Spanish Civil War. No sooner does young, conservative, and high-moraled Dr. Fermin (Carmelo Gomez) arrive at the pueblo than he is under in Mararia's (Goya Toledo) bewitching spell. She is interested in him too, and they briefly flirt. Freewheeling, roguish English surveyor Bertrand (Ian Glen) has also come to town on a job for the Royal Geographic Society. He too is enchanted by Mararia, and they become lovers. When Mararia becomes pregnant with Beretrand's child, the stage is set for tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A young boy's fascination with the deaths of several people close to him spark his growth from boyhood in this Spanish drama from writer-director Montxo Armendáriz. The hometown of nine-year-old Javi (Andoni Erburu and his brother Juan (Alvaro Nagone) is a rural farming village in the early 1960s. Their father, they are told, accidentally killed himself while cleaning his gun, and the room where the death occurred has been declared off limits to the boys. Juan tells his younger brother that ghostly sounds can be heard in the room, but when Javi sneaks in and hears the unearthly moans, it's really the sound of their mother making love with their uncle Tio (Carmelo Gomez). Javi's friend Carlos (Inigo Garces) has also suffered the loss of a parent, his mother, who committed suicide. Javi and Carlos sneak into a haunted house, also rumored to be a site where spectral sounds can be heard, and they overhear something in the basement. His adventures inspire Javi to question the deaths of his father and Carlos' mother, leading to a revelation. Secretos del Corazon (1997) was the winner of four Goya Awards, as well as an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Dressed in blinding white, carrying a strange pack upon his back and a toxin-spewing wand, comes exterminating Angel and his similarly clad army to the scorched, crimson earth of Aragon wine country, to destroy the insects that give the wine it's unique flavor. There Angel fines himself falling in love with a homely cuckolded wife Angela who only stays with her cheating husband for her daughter's sake. He also falls for the town's teenage tramp, the white-hot black-leather wearing Mari, who falls in love with him after one passionate night. This off-beat Spanish romance, made with a dash of cosmic pretensions, chronicles his relationships with the two women while also dealing with his strange relationship to his alter ego who may or may not be, an angel. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A prominent 17th-century Spanish noblewoman throws social convention to the wind and pursues a romance with her low-born personal secretary in this romantic and lavish costume thriller. The trouble begins when the young Countess Diana discovers that the secretary Teodoro is engaged to one of her maids. Outraged, she manipulates her servant into falling in love with another so she can have Teodoro to herself. The attention she heaps upon Teodoro inspires the jealousy of her blue-blooded suitors who begin plotting his demise. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Imanol Uribe's Dias Contados recieved widespread critical acclaim for its compassionate but unsentimental, multi-layed analysis of the tumultuous relationship between a Basque terrorist assigned to bomb a Madrid police station and the neighboring prostitute with whom he falls in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

When he sees a motorcycle go over the side of the boardwalk at San Sebastian, crashing onto the beach, Jota goes to see what happened. He discovers that the vehicle was being driven by an attractive young woman. He calls an ambulance and gets onto it with her. When the emergency medical staff discover that she has amnesia, Jota takes advantage of the situation to claim that she's been living with him for the past few years. After she gets out of the hospital, the young woman accompanies him to a camping resort called "The Red Squirrel," and they have a number of adventures involving her obnoxious husband, who has been looking for her, and an equally obnoxious campsite neighbor. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In Basque country, feuds, governments, and wars come and go, while cows placidly observe the strange behaviors of the humans who care for them. In 1875, during a massacre inspired by an out-of-control family feud, a farmer and his friend find themselves in a ditch together. One of them dies, and the other survives by playing possum using his friend's blood as a disguise. As the film flashes forward in time, the man is now a grandfather who amuses himself by painting the tranquil gaze of cows over and over again, while he observes that his son is having an affair with his dead friend's granddaughter. Finally, during the Civil War in 1936, violence again mars the life of the family, as the illegitimate son of the earlier affair attempts to make headway with his life. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The spirit, hopes, and failures of a troupe of itinerant performers in the 1950s create a poignant, humorous leitmotif in this drama by Fernando Fernan-Gomez. The story of the wandering players is told in flashbacks, as Carlos Galvan (Jose M. Sacristan) reminisces about the good times while under therapy with a psychiatrist in a senior citizens' home. Carlos and his lover Juanita (Laura del Sol), his teenage son, his father, and a few other actors try to eke out a living by putting on shows in small towns and villages. No one has very much money, but life is lived to the hilt, and Carlos himself has some pretty tall tales. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi