Jaume Roures Movies

A woman confronts the realities of life in the occupied Palestinian territories in this drama. While she was born and raised in New York, Soraya (Suheir Hammad) is of Palestinian heritage and has long dreamed of returning to the land of her ancestors. When Soraya learns that her grandfather bequeathed her a bit more than $15,000 he left in a bank account in Ramallah, she decides it's time to make a pilgrimage, especially since the inheritance can pay for a long stay in the country. However, Soraya arrives in Israel to find that immigration personnel and border guards are not helpful to tourists of Palestinian blood, and it takes no small amount of determination before she arrives in Ramallah. There, Soraya meets Emad (Saleh Bakri), a handsome Palestinian student who has a scholarship waiting for him at a university in Canada, but Israeli immigration authorities refuse to grant him a visa. Soraya and Emad bond over their frustrations at the injustice they see around them, and when she learns that the money in her grandfather's account (and all other Palestinian accounts at the bank) was forfeited after the establishment of the nation of Israel, they decide to take action. Soraya, Emad and his friend Marwan (Riyad Ideis) plan to stage a bank robbery, in which they'll take only the amount deposited by her grandfather as a protest against the discriminatory policies that have become a part of daily life under occupation. Milh Hadha Al-Bahr (aka Salt Of This Sea) was the first feature film from writer and director Annemarie Jacir. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A hip fashionista at a trendy design school takes the concept of "fashion victim" soaring to bloody new heights as she embarks on a brutal killing spree, all the while flying comfortably beneath the radar of the clueless homicide detectives frantically searching for clues in all the wrong places. When a collection of corpses are unearthed at the Med School on a large university campus, the authorities scramble to land a lead before the case goes cold. No one suspects design school trendsetter Barbara could be the homicidal maniac behind these vicious slayings, but what better way to rid the world of bad dressers than kill them slowly and bury them in shallow graves? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

His childhood pal Suso having recently died from a drug overdose, likeable dolt Cundo returns to the Asturian village where the pair grew up intending simply to attend the funeral, but gradually delving into a larger mission after discovering an odd collection of Suso's sketches. It's been nearly a decade since Asturian native Cundo (Javier Camara) moved away to Argentina, but upon receiving word that his old pal has passed he decides to venture back home and pay his respects. Later, after touching base with the old gang, Cundo happens across a series of Suso's drawings. It seems that Cundo's old friend had a serious obsession with towers, a revelation that leads the well-intending mourner to plan a memorial tower in memory of his old friend. As all the old gang gradually comes on board, Cundo begins to feel as if Suso engineered the plan to help his old friends out of their current rut. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A soccer player-turned-con man and an aspiring artist strike up a passionate romance in writer/director Rafa Russo's slow burn romantic drama. Argentinean ex-soccer player Ruben (Gustavo Garzon) has forsaken his athletic career to travel Spain and make a dishonest living. Struggling artist and failed mother Adriana (Ana Fernandez) longs to re-connect with her estranged son Damian (Andres Gertrudix). When the two divorcees meet by chance in a hotel bar, they form a fast bond that soon turns serious when Ruben proposes marriage. Later, as Ruben leaves for a "business trip" and Adrianna embarks on a desperate search for her long-lost son, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern whether Ruben's aim is true or Adrianna is simply the latest in a long line of unsuspecting targets for the unrepentant scammer. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Writer-director Isabel Coixet's (My Life Without Me) beautifully wrought chamber drama The Secret Life of Words opens on Hanna (Sarah Polley), a laconic, backward and introverted girl in her early '30s, quietly drowning in her own isolation. Partially deaf from working an untold number of hours in a loud factory, Hanna must wear a hearing aid. When her supervisors -- deeply concerned about the four years that have lapsed in Hanna's life without a break -- force her to go on holiday for a month, she hesitantly takes off for a coastal village in the north of Ireland. Once there, she decides to dine in a local restaurant, and overhears, by chance, a telephone conversation conducted by Victor (Eddie Marsan), regarding an accident on a nearby oil rig that he precipitated, which left a victim, Josef (Tim Robbins) in its wake. Hanna tells Victor that she is a nurse, and is instantly flown to the rig to treat the bedbound Josef -- temporarily blind from extensive cornea damage, and his body blanketed with severe burns. She also encounters the structure's motley and eccentric band of workers -- from ecologist Martin (Daniel Mays), who spends his time studying mutated mussels that collect on the ship's base and the waves that strike the side of the rig, to Josef, to chef Simon (Javier Camára), who prepares "gourmet" food no one else can stand, to Dimitri (Sverre Anker Ousdal), an elderly gentleman who is as much of a loner as Hanna. As Hanna begins to foresee a new place for herself among these individuals, a relationship gradually develops between Hanna and Josef, who holds his new friend rapt with lyrical, evocative, magisterial tales from his past -- unknowingly drawing Hanna, one step at a time, toward inner joy, self-expression, and revelation of her own sad and complex story. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Set in the Spanish port city of Vigo, Fernando León de Aranoa's Mondays in the Sun is a touching drama about a group of working-class men who find themselves suddenly unemployed and unwanted in their middle age. Laid off from the local shipyard, the men spend their days at the town bar, where they reminisce, philosophize, and commiserate about their current state. Gruff Santa (a bearded Javier Bardem) puts up a tough front, refusing to sink into self-pity, and occasionally pricking his friends' hopes. Morose José (Luis Tosar) openly worries about his wife, whom he fears might leave him. That seems to have been the fate of Amador (Celso Bugallo), the oldest of the bunch, who keeps reassuring everyone that his wife will be back any day now from her trip. Meanwhile, Lino (José Ángel Egido) refuses to give up hope of employment, going to interview after interview for jobs being offered to applicants half his age. Presiding over the glum bunch is Rico (Joaquín Climent), the bar owner and the men's co-worker from the shipyard days. Despite its depressing subject and downbeat mood, Mondays in the Sun was a big winner at the 2003 Goya Awards, Spain's equivalent of the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Bardem. The film was also Spain's surprise representative for the 2003 Oscars' Foreign Language film category, nabbing the distinction over Pedro Almodóvar's critically lauded Talk to Her. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide