Alicia Sanchez Movies

One dysfunctional family's problems hold up a mirror to larger issues of racism and misplaced patriotism in this Spanish drama. Berta (Marisa Paredes) is a nurse who is edging into middle age and looking for a husband; she also looks after the three teenage children of her recently deceased sister. Eduardo (Imanol Arias) is a hard-drinking police investigator who encounters Berta during a trip to the hospital; they hit it off and begin dating. But Berta's new romance could pose a problem for her niece, Lucia (Maria Isasi), whose boyfriend, Fausto (Jose Luis Alcobendas), has a lucrative illegal business smuggling illegal aliens from North Africa into Spain. Adding to tensions around the house, Lucia's brothers, Raul (Alberto Ferreiro) and Guillermo (Roger Casamajor), are members of an extreme right-wing group who have been implicated in the murder of an illegal immigrant from Senegal (Emilio Buale). Berta tries to ignore the ugly truth about the youngsters in her care, but when Eduardo is assigned to investigate the case of the murdered immigrant, she is forced to face the reality of her family's actions. Salvajes was the first feature film from director Carlos Molinero. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Noted Spanish director Vicente Aranda explores female sensuality and male vanity in this slick erotic thriller. Stunningly beautiful Carmen (Aitana Sanchez Gijon) works at an orange packing factory and is engaged to be married to Antonio (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), a long-distance trucker who works for the same company. One day during a freak rainstorm, Antonio happens upon an accident involving one of his plant's fellow truck drivers. When he helps sift through the debris, he discovers a photograph of some guy cozying up to his bikini-clad fiancée. Confronted with the incriminating picture, she admits to having dated the man a long time ago, but this does little to assuage Antonio's mounting jealousy. When he interrogates Carmen's best friend, he learns little more than that the man's name is Jose. Antonio's quiet stewing over his girlfriend's romantic history suddenly explodes into violence, threatening their impeding marriage. Carmen maintains that she only wants to get pregnant and be a good wife for him. Antonio eventually calms down, apologizes profusely, and the two get married. Yet in spite of numerous lovingly photographed rounds of post-marital sex, Antonio's jealousy over Jose continues to torment him. He ultimately finds Jose and forces his wife to meet her ex-flame. The emotional fallout from the encounter shocks all involved. Celos was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

With little dialog and exquisite, almost documentary-like images, Cabeza de Vaca offers a fascinating (if not mystical and at times just plain puzzling) foray back to early 16th-century America as it chronicles the exploits of the explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca as he spends eight years traversing the wild lands surrounding the Gulf of Mexico. The story itself is based on the book Naufragio, Cabeza de Vaca's personal account. Cabeza de Vaca was the ship's treasurer on an ill-fated expedition to America. Marooned on the densely jungled Florida coast he becomes the unwilling guest of the Iguase Indians (for added realism and to help audiences understand how Cabeza de Vaca felt, the Native speech is not translated). He is enslaved and much of the story centers on his coming to grips with his strange new life and the people around him. Eventually he is taken to a powerful Iguase shaman who teaches him the healing arts, skills he is able to put to amazing use during his amazing journey. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this engaging comedy, Ana (Veronica Forque) is the wife of Antonio (Antonio Resines), the assistant to the minister of health. When Antonio sets up a clinic to combat sexually transmitted diseases, Ana and her friend cruise the gay bars and the red-light district for potential customers. Soon Antonio is called before his irate boss, who tempers his indignation when he, his wife, and his mistress becomes clients. ~ Dan Pavlides, 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

In this story (within a story) a man is remembering his years as a little boy living in Madrid during World War II, particularly important because his mother committed suicide in 1942. Scenes flip back and forth between the man in the present, and the man as a little boy, very much attached to his mother and intensely disliking his father. As these memories move into the complexities of life back then, the story stops and it is shown to be something entirely different than what it seemed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide