Ramon Barea Movies

Having recently been released by kidnappers after being held for nine excruciating months, a haunted businessman is compelled to help a "forgotten" astronaut on the MIR space station return to Earth safely in director Diego Fandos' entry into the 2007 San Sebastian Film Festival. The year is 1992, and respected businessman Iñaki Larrera has finally returned home following a harrowing ordeal. Upon hearing a news report about an astronaut who is stranded on the MIR space station due to the dissolving of the Soviet Union, Iñaki feels a strong obligation to help ensure the space explorer is safely returned to Earth. Meanwhile, a young waitress named Euriane begins to feel as if a mysterious stranger is tracking her every move while attempting to manipulate her life from behind the scenes. Despite the fact that Iñaki and Euriane have never met, these two troubled souls are about to find out just how much they truly have in common. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Spanish filmmaker Emilio Martinez-Lazaro directs the musical comedy El Otro Lado De La Cama (The Wrong Side of the Bed). The farcical story involves the romantic betrayals and couplings between Pedro (Guillermo Toledo), Paula (Natalia Verbeke), Javier (Ernesto Alterio), and Sonia (Paz Vega). When Paula breaks up with Pedro, he hires a private detective, Sagaz (Ramon Barea), to follow her. She's really dating Javier, who tries to get Pedro to date Pilar (Maria Esteve). Pedro eventually dates Sonia, whom Javier believes is dating lesbian actress Lucia (Nathalie Poza). This romantic comedy incorparates '80s-style song and dance numbers into the narrative. Also starring Alberto San Juan as the cab driver Rafa. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Spanish director Gracia Querejeta directed this complex psychological study about two generations of a single family. The film unfolds with a double narrative. The first details the turbulent marriage of the brittle Adela (Marta Belaustegui) and her macho, Cuban-born husband Joao (Jorge Perugorria). Their lives are chronicled from their wedding in the 1950s through the birth and upbringing of their three daughters, to Joao's mysterious disappearance in the '60s. In the second narrative, the three daughters, Gloria (Mercedes Sampietro), Ana (Adriana Ozores), and Lidia (Rosa Mariscal) -- now all in their 40s -- gather for the funeral of their mother. They soon discover that they need to find Joao to discuss Adela's will, and their superstitious aunt provides a key bit of information in finding their father's whereabouts. Cuando Vuelvas a Mi Lado was screened at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this rather old-fashioned Spanish comedy, the first directorial effort of actor Ramon Barea, a band of misfit nuns become trapped between an ideological war between sisters slavishly devoted to the old ways and those wanting to enter the 20th century, and they attempt to escape their aging convent by digging an elaborate tunnel. The traditionalists are led by the vice-prioress, who has been charged for guarding the preserved corpse of the convent's founder, while the modernists rally around the progress-oriented, computer-savvy prioress. The would-be escapees include Sister Rufina, who really wants to be a priest, Sister Asun, who undergoes a hysterical pregnancy and childbirth; Sister Remedios, who believes her beloved statue of Christ to be alive, and the ditzy innocent Sistar Rosarito. Pecata Minuta aired in the "Open Zone" category of the 1998 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, much of this somber drama centers on Rafael, a kindly but emotionally-distant butcher who has avoided people after accidentally castrating himself while cutting meat several years before. He has since considered himself unmanned and therefore undesirable to women. One day he sees a young man beating up his lover and can't help but intervene. Taking pity on the girl, he takes her to his home. Her name is Marina and she tells Rafael how she and her boyfriend Daniel grew up in a terrible environment without parental guidance. She also tells him that she is pregnant. Rafael treats the troubled girl with kindness and she responds by proving that there is more than one way to be a man and to experience love. In this way, the two find healing and happiness raising Marina's daughter. Years later, their happiness is nearly destroyed by the sudden return of the ultra macho Daniel. Caring nothing for Marina, nor his child, he only wants a place to live. Though he knows that Marina has strong, unresolved feelings for Daniel, Rafael does not want to lose her and so allows Daniel to stay. With only lifetimes of strife in common, the three lonely, disaffected adults thus form an uneasy family which must cope with painful issues and choices. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in the mid-1980s, this sitcom-like domestic comedy centers on a bright young man's endeavors to escape his crazy family life. Jorge's ordeal began when his recently-widowed mother Carmen moved herself, him and his brother Alvaro into her parent's comfortable but strange middle-class home. Their grandfather is a stern Francoist general suffering from alcoholism, memory loss and an earnest desire to launch a military coup. Their grandmother is stone deaf, domineering and has not spoken to her husband in years. Duli the maid never stops smiling. An introverted intellectual sort in his late teens, Jorge finds the situation difficult to accept. His rebellious brother Alvaro, who wants to be a Mod and turn Madrid into a riotous version of Brighton Beach during the mid- '60s, also hates it there, but as their mother is busily studying for her college degree, they have little choice. Jorge turns to stealing money from his increasingly forgetful grandfather in order to escape the crazy household. While Jorge busily makes himself rich, the grandfather somehow manages to pull off his coup. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Waging war against all things glamorous and beautiful, crippled terrorists Accion Mutante plot a series of attacks on society's elite, gaining a fearsome reputation before their activities are stalled with the jailing of their leader and mastermind, Ramon. Soon reunited with their newly released leader, Accion Mutante plots the elaborate wedding reception kidnapping of Patricia, a wealthy socialite. Though many die in the botched kidnapping, the gang gets away with Patricia and jumps aboard their spaceship, destined for a distant planet and a healthy ransom. Celebration is short-lived as greed kicks in and Ramon plants the seeds of distrust among his fellow mutants shortly after take-off. With all of the mutants gone sans a vengeful Siamese twin (or at least half of him), Ramon takes his cash cow to the pay-off site, though a curious case of the Stockholm syndrome has thrown an unexpected wrench into Ramon's devious plan. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Basque country, in northern Spain and southern France, has been plagued for decades (if not longer) by the activities of a violent separatist group known (using initials from its Euskara-language name) as ETA. This drama, filmed largely in the language of the Basques (Euskara), concerns the complex relations between a former ETA member and his society. In particular, it focuses on a showdown between the man who has now become a drug-runner, and his former best friend, who in addition to being involved in anti-government terrorism, actively fights the drug trade. The activity of the police is consistently shown as either sinister or irrelevant, while the ETA is shown in perhaps the best light it can be. A great deal of talk, political and otherwise, fleshes out this slim story. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

King Carlos II of Spain (r. 1665-1700) once sent his brother Luis to lead a military expedition into Albania and conquer that land for the Spaniards. Since Albania was a part of the dowry of Luis' wife, it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time. While that expedition and its final battle is the subject of this historical film, the scale involved can hardly do justice to the concept. The protagonists talk incessantly, and by the time they get down to the final grand battle, it turns out to be a skirmish between several dozen men. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide