Fernando Cayo Movies

Peruvian filmmaker Alberto 'Chicho' Durant directs the ensemble film Doble Juego (Con Game). Rafo (Fabrizio Aguilar) is a would-be filmmaker in Lima struggling to pay his bills and support his girlfriend Laura (Mari Pili Barreda). He gets scammed by a Spanish con artist (Fernando Cayo) as part of an elaborate scheme involving several other Peruvians. The film is based on the corrupt administration of President Fujimori. Con Game was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the World Cinema program. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Helmer Santiago Tabernero's coming-of-ager Life in Color (AKA Vida y Color, 2005) paints an enduring, vivid portrait of life in a Spanish village in the late summer of 1975 - at a juncture when color televisions were on the verge of appearing in middle-class homes, and the lives of citizenry on the verge of dramatically improving thanks to the impending death of fascist Francisco Franco. Tabernero filters his tender, nostalgic story through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy, Fede (Junio Valverde), who lives in the hamlet of Las Islas with his sister Bego (Silvia Abascal), his mother Sole (Ana Wagener), his father Angel (Adolfo Fernandez) and his grandfather (portrayed by Joan Dalmau) - a man who saves a bottle of champagne to gear up for the ensuing celebration of Franco's death. The sweet-natured Fede must contend with almost constant bullying by the punk Benito, and spends the majority of his extracurricular time with two friends: the quiet, introverted Sara (Nadia de Santiago) and her Down's-afflicted sister, Ramona (Natalia Abascal) - both victims of a mentally unstable, issue-ridden father. Tabernero sets about interweaving several stories of life in the village - the most intense of which involves the mysterious disappearance of a young girl from Las Islas. As lensed by ace cinematographer Jose Luis Alcane, the picture expressionistically projects the aesthetic overtones (bright, intense colors) of Fede's imagination onto the film's settings. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A group of likable losers aims for fame and fortune as a rock band in this comedy. Apolo (Fernando Cayo), a one-time security guard, is looking for something to do with his life, so he puts together a band with three of his pals, big-thinking Rodol (Andres Gertrudix), self-doubting Zalo (Pau Colera), and trouble-making Malu (Rebeca Jimenez). With drug fiend Kiko (Manolo Caro) as manager, the group adopts the name Shacky Carmine, and struggles to rise from total obscurity to relative obscurity. Shacky Carmine had the distinction of being the first Spanish film to open in theaters and on the internet at the same time. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro produces director Juan Antonio Bayona's gothic frightener about a long-abandoned orphanage with a particularly troubling past. As a child, young orphan Laura spent her formative years being cared for by the staff of a large orphanage located by the Spanish seaside. Those were some of the happiest years of Laura's life, and now, 30 years later, the former charge returns to the dilapidated institution with her husband, Carlos, and their seven-year-old son, Simon, to reopen the orphanage as a facility for disabled children. However, something ominous haunts the darkened hallways of this silent, stately manor. When Simon's behavior begins to grow increasingly bizarre and malicious, Laura and Carlos start to suspect that the mysterious surroundings have awoken something ominous in the young boy's imagination. It's not long before Laura, too, is drawn into this disturbing web and the repressed memories of the past come flooding back in a terrifying torrent of tension and deeply disturbing revelations. With opening day drawing near and their situation growing increasingly grim by the hour, Carlos attempts to write off Simon's bizarre behavior as a desperate bid to get more attention from his distracted parents. Laura isn't so easily convinced of this theory, though, and soon embarks on a desperate quest to unearth the terrible secret that lurks in the old house, waiting for just the right moment to inflict devastating damage on both her and her family. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi