Ricardo Garcia Arrojo Movies

A teacher who prides herself on being different meets a student who matches her non-conformist nature in this period drama. It's 1934, and Miss G (Eva Green) is a teacher at a private school for girls near the Eastern coastline of England. While most of the teachers at the school are severe and straight-laced women who reinforce its reputation as a repressive environment, Miss G is more youthful and glamorous than her colleagues, and enjoys dropping hints of a free-spirited past to her young charges. Miss G encourages her students to challenge conventional norms of the day, and organizes a diving team at the school that she oversees with great interest. Miss G also sees a danger in the cliques that dominate the school, and she tries to undermine them, much to the annoyance of Di (Juno Temple), who hold a high place in the school's pecking order. But things change for both Miss G and her students when Fiamma (Maria Valverde) enrolls at the school. Fiamma is from Spain and has a strong independent streak; she doesn't look to her peers for approval and insists on doing things her own way, which makes her all the more exotic and appealing to the other students. Fiamma also earns the approval of Miss G, but before long rumors begin to spread that the teacher's interest in her new student is more than academic. Cracks was the first feature film from director Jordan Scott, whose father is the noted filmmaker Ridley Scott. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The question as to how far a corporate drone would go to land a high-level position at a multinational corporation is explored in Argentinian director Marcelo Piñeyro's back-stabbing boardroom drama that takes its name from a mysterious human-resources strategy imported from the United States as a means of choosing the best man for the job. As the time for a decision draws near, the streets of Madrid are awash with anti-globalization protesters; and the tension between job applicants Carlos (Eduardo Noriega), Nieves (Najwa Nimri), Fernando (Eduard Fernández), Ana (Adriana Ozores), and Enrique (Ernesto Alterio) comes to a head. As the corporate lackeys engage in an increasingly dehumanizing series of psychological games and scorching betrayals, the choice of who will ultimately take the reins of the coveted position will ultimately depend on which applicant is willing to employ the most diabolical techniques of manipulation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A con man finds himself up against an adversary he hasn't the strength to challenge in this crime drama from Spain. Ernesto (Ernesto Alterio) is a man who grew up learning the easier way to get out of trouble was to lie, and over the years, he's built a career out of his gift for twisting the truth as a con man. Teaming up with two experienced grifters, Manco (Manuel Alexandre) and Federico (Federico Luppi), Ernesto is able to pull off a major scam involving the Spanish Army that scores the three a major payday. This should put Ernesto and his partners on Easy Street, but things begin to go sour when Ernesto is reunited with a former girlfriend, Pilar (Victoria Abril). Ernesto is a soft touch for anything that Pilar might suggest, and when she plots a big con for him and his partners, he offers no objections. However, when Manco dies under hazy circumstances and Ernesto's childhood pal Gipsy (Alejandro Casaseca) conveniently appears wanting to take his place, Ernesto begins to suspect that he may be the one being scammed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this somber and slow-moving drama, the overbearing mother of six daughters is consumed by the emotional trauma of her husband's death. One daughter is compelled to hang herself when she realizes she will never escape her mother's icy emotional grip. The story is taken from the play by Federico Garcia Lorca. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide