Fernando Balzaretti Movies

Spain held vast territories in its Mexican colony, areas which are now part of the American soutwest. For a long time, huge portions of these territories went unexplored. In this historical drama set in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Padre Kino (1645-1711), a Jesuit missionary, defies his superiors and explores the northern reaches of Baja California. In his journeys, he discovers (to everyone's surprise) that it is a penninsula connected to the rest of California. Padre Kino (Francisco Eusebio Kino) established many towns and villages along the way, and is an important figure in Mexico's colonial history. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Guerilla wars against the major powers have been a factor in Central American politics for a long time. This biographical drama is based on the life of Nicaragua's prototypical 20th century guerilla, Augusto C. Sandino (born as Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino). His name and life were the inspiration for the anti-U.S. forces in that country fifty years after his death: they called themselves the Sandanistas. It is helpful to remember, and this movie demonstrates, that the U.S. military has been actively involved with the domestic politics of Nicaragua many times in this century, most notably during the 1912 invasion which resulted in over twenty continuous years of U.S. military intervention. In the story, Sandino loves two women: his wife, who remains at home, and his warlike mistress, a guerilla who accompanies him into the jungle. He has a tendency (common at the time) of wanting to trust politicians. As a result, he was betrayed by Anastasio Somoza in 1933, and vanished from sight. Somoza soon became the sole ruler of Nicaragua (from 1936 to 1956). The free-thinking rebel, who renamed himself Augusto César Sandino in the late 1920s, identified strongly with the indios or indigenous people of the region, and proposed a political agenda under which the countries of the Central America would unite against European exploitation. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This filmed biography explores the life of the Mexican artist Francisco Goitia (played by Jose Carlos Ruiz), whose internal struggle with what he perceived to be a conflict between art and religious faith worked itself out in his many paintings. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The Mexican/Spanish El Verano de La Senora Forbes (Summer of Miss Forbes) features Hanna Schygulla in the leading role. Schygulla plays a German governess, in charge of two Mexican boys while their parents are absent. The kids despise the governess, who is rigid and tyrannical. They go so far as to plan her murder, but find they don't need to kill her: beset with dozens of personal demons, the woman has been spiritually dead for years. One of six late-1980s Spanish TV adaptations of the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El Verano de la Senora Forbes was directed by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands fame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

aka: It's my Life -- El Noa Noa 2 This shallow sequel to the 1979 film on the early stages of Alberto Aguilera's musical career continues the story of the singer's mistaken incarceration and glimpses of where his career would go after he is released from jail. As this biographical drama opens, Aguilera (known by his stage name of Juan Gabriel) is framed for a robbery he never committed and is sent to prison. While in prison he entertains the inmates with his music and songs, and the "dreams" he has of his future take up the rest of the time. These sequences introduce excerpts from his successful future and alleviate the time he has to spend in jail. Letters home to mom lie about where he is, since his adoration of his mother would not allow him to tell her the truth about his arrest and conviction, no matter how undeserved. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

As Spanish power waned in Europe, one of the favored games of European powers was to replace one Spanish king with another. By the time of Napoleon, the Spanish monarch was Fernando VII (1784-1833), who held and lost that throne many times at the whim of his father, Napoleon, European powers, and the Spanish people themselves. This epic war film tells of the exploits of Mina (Jose Alonzo), a Spanish guerrilla who fought against Napoleon and later struggled against Fernando VII in Mexico, as that nation fought for independence. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi