Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón Movies

The realities of terrorism in Spain provide the backdrop for this political thriller from writer and director Manuel Gutierrez Aragon. Xabier (Jose Coronado) is a well-respected university professor who is a member of an exclusive Basque dining club. The club is home to a number of Basque nationalists who believe the use of terror against the Spanish government is appropriate and justified; Xabier does not share these views, and speaking out against terrorist violence at their gatherings has earned him several enemies. While Xabier believes the members of his club defend terrorism as theory rather than practice, he discovers that's not the case when one of the loyalists threatens his life and unknown invaders ransack his apartment. Meanwhile, Xabier's girlfriend is Francesca (Vanessa Incontrada), who works as a clinical psychologist in a Spanish prison hospital. One of Francesca's newest patients is Josu Jon (Oscar Jaenada), a Basque terrorist who suffered a head injury when he wrecked his car while being chased by police. Josu Jon has lost much of his memory, and as Francesca helps him piece his life back together, he finds he can no longer support the cause for which he was once willing to die. But Olatz (Leire Ucha), leader of the terrorist cell Josu Jon worked with, is not about to let one of his soldiers walk away without a fight. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The infamous man from La Mancha and his devoted sidekick embark on a new quest in this slightly off-kilter version of author Miguel de Cervantes' classic novel Don Quixote, as envisioned by director and screenwriter Manuel Gutierrez Aragon in his 2002 adaptation entitled Don Quixote, Knight Errant. Around the year 1615, Don Quixote (Juan Luis Galiardo) and Sancho Panza (Carlos Iglesias) enjoy the lives of celebrities, as the public was made well aware of their exploits thanks to the writings of De Cervantes. Now well into the twilight of his life, the eccentric nobleman gets the notion that a horde of angry Turks are about to launch a naval attack and Quixote decides it is once again time to suit up in the name of honor. As Quixote and Panza head out to meet their "foes," the anachronistic duo draws the attention and derision of their fellow countrymen. But no matter, Panza is perfectly content to let Quixote do his own thing -- even going so far as to instigate the knight's sense of daring-do, as the men head out to for what may be their final adventure together. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

In this thriller from Spain, Paloma (Ana Fernandez) is a psychiatrist at a mental hospital who has begun working with a patient named Mario (Miguel Angel Sola). Mario suffers from Korsakov Syndrome, a combination of short and long term memory loss that's made it impossible for him to recall anything that happened to him before 1977. Paloma finds herself drawn to Mario as she struggles with him to regain his past. However, when several men with guns arrive at the hospital one day looking for Mario, she realizes that the life he can't recall may have been darker and more dangerous than she imagined. Se Quien Eres was the first dramatic feature from documentary filmmaker Patricia Ferreira. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In 1939, Ramon (Jacques Penot) was a young man, caught up in his Barcelona family's involvement on the Republic side in the brutal Spanish Civil War. He and his family fled into exile ahead of Franco's troops. Now it is many years later, and he has come back to see how his old homestead fared in the intervening years. The only person he can find who is able to remember those years clearly is his family's old butler Claudio (Vittorio Gassman). This film is a sequel to the 1975 film by director Jaime Camino, Largas Vacaciones del 36. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Pedro Jarrapellejos (Antonio Ferrandis) is a ladies man who cannot turn the heads of Isabel (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) or her beautiful daughter. When both peasant women are found raped and murdered in a brutal scene, a schoolteacher is falsely accused. Pedro knows his own nephew and his friend participated in the killings, but he uses his considerable influence over the police and courts to intimidate the witnesses into silence. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Rosa (Angela Molina) has one burning desire: to escape the grinding poverty in which she was born. To this end, Rosa takes a job at a fancy eatery in Madrid. Slowly and methodically, she becomes the city's Number One restaurateur. Not that she hasn't had a little "extra help" along the way: in fact, one could almost refer to her rise to the top as magical. Margarita Lozano co-stars as Rosa's ancient grandmother, who passes on certain peculiar powers to the ambitious heroine. Based on the "feminist fable" by Manuel Guitterez Aragon Half of Heaven was originally released in Spain as La Mitad del Cielo. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This fantasy about a young man who becomes a bear, who becomes a young man again is equally ambivalent in its identity -- it is a drama that becomes a comedy that becomes a satire, and is not quite a straightforward fable. After the young man runs away from being shackled to a cabin, he spends the winter in a cave and emerges as a bear (obviously a man wearing a bear suit). He is taken in by a writer who teaches him how to use a computer, which somehow poses no problem. The bear speaks like the young man and for awhile tries working as a computer operator, undoubtedly raising questions about the standards in that field. While invited to tea one afternoon, the bear kills a dog in self-defense and is forced to head back to his cave for the winter -- where he emerges after a long hibernation as the young man. In retrospect, contact with the computing world had quite a transforming effect. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A young Catholic girl takes viewers through a changing Spanish political and social landscape as she develops from her confirmation day to adulthood. Her first experience with the real Spain comes when her Jewish godfathers cannot come to her confirmation. One of the godfathers, using a ring, poses an early challenge to her innocence that puts her in danger. He later returns, indirectly introducing her to a new boyfriend. If he is one of the symbols for Jewish life under Franco, or for a Judeo-Christian interaction, that interaction is complex. The young woman encounters different lovers as she grows into adulthood, but at the same time she is burdened with financially supporting her father and his own rather decadent lifestyle. Again, this difference in generations could be understood as a difference between the "new" and "old" Spain; it is up to the viewers to interpret the story elements as they decide. Darker sides of life and new layers of meaning are explored as the young woman and her boyfriend steal from a priest, and the story of rapist Caryl Chessman's execution in San Quentin, California is woven into the plot line. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Deeply layered with much symbolic and allegorical material, the generally non-narrative events in this film revolve around Ana (Ana Belen) a girl who has been diagnosed with a terminal case of cancer. In one scene, she is injured in a Madrid Public library when a police horse crashes through a plate glass window. The police have just been violently dealing with protestors who are objecting to the state's handling of the trials of six men accused of involvement in the death of a policeman. In another scene, a man claims he can cure her of cancer, but she must turn her mind over to him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This shocking film would have been impossible to make just two years before, in 1975. It tells the story of a group of right-wing terrorists, led by a strangely seductive older woman, whose destructive attacks on anyone it considers to have betrayed Spain to any form of leftism are cynically ignored by the police. The main story is about Tatin (Jose Luis Alonso), a 15-year-old young man, a hanger-on and newcomer to the group, who longs to participate in his first action against the hated "reds." ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this complex drama, a drifter brings his new girlfriend home for a visit. The girl's real flame is an escaped convict, who looks her up. Before she can leave with her convict lover, the drifter's mother kills her. Even though the mother had an incestuous relationship with her son, the son is determined to kill his mother, believing that she killed his one true love. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi