Rafael Azcona Movies

Having previously explored the ways in which war robs children of their innocence in his 1999 drama The Butterfly's Tongue, director José Luis Cuerda once again turns his attentions towards the Spanish Civil War and its devastating aftermath with this period drama set in 1940 and following a family forced to live a lie in order to avoid death. To the outside world, Elena (Maribel Verdú) is a caring mother who lives alone with her son Lorenzo (Roger Príncep) and daughter Elenita (Irene Escolar). Unbeknownst to anyone except her immediate family, however, is the fact that her husband Ricardo (Javier Cámara), a Republican schoolteacher, is also hiding out in the family home. Meanwhile, Lorenzo's teacher Salvador (Raúl Arévalo) remains deeply shaken by the horrors he both witnessed and partook in as a soldier in the war. Salvador was still a wide-eyed seminary student when he was sent off to fight, his experiences on the battlefield casing him to question both his faith and his allegiance to the government. Later, when Salvador meets Elena, he begins to form a dangerous obsession with the beautiful woman that soon threatens to destroy her entire family. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The third installment of director Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez's state-of-Spain trilogy, which began in 1995 with Whispers of Spain (and Portugal). Roguish Juan (Juan Luis Galiardo) lives by himself, eking out a dubious living from gambling money and blackmailing various women who were once his lovers, one of whom is Alicia (Teresa Gimpera). When Caty (Laura Ramos), a would-be athlete, materializes on Juan's doorstep one day claiming to be his daughter by a tryst in Havana 20 years earlier, Juan finds the order of his daily existence thrown into peril. Caty is in search of Spanish residence, and is helped in her quest by Pepe (Juan Echanove), a cop who has recently been left by Juan's other daughter Carmela (Neus Asensi) -- for Tony (Pedro Miguel Martinez), a bisexual hairdresser. The plot twists again when Juan is contacted by Alicia's husband, a sleazy crook by the name of Pozueta (Jesus Bonilla), who wants Juan to go to jail in his place. Pozueta is smitten with Caty and offers to marry her but must get a divorce in order to do so, thus arranges a deal with Juan to record Alicia in bed with her new lover. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Post-Franco filmmaker Fernando Trueba's first Spanish-based feature since 1993's Oscar-winning Belle Epoque, La Nina de Tus Ojos begins in 1938, when Spain is torn by Civil War. As a sign of cordiality between General Franco and Adolph Hitler, a Spanish film crew is invited to Nazi Germany's UFA Studios in Berlin to make two versions of a popular Andalusian musical. The cast includes sexy, golden-hearted Macarena (Penélope Cruz), director Blas Fontiveros (Antonio Resines), leading man Julian Torralba (Jorge Sanz), art director Castillo (Santiago Segura) and alcoholic Rosa Rosales (Rosa Maria Sarda). On arrival, they gape at the resplendent shooting facilities, thankful to escape the misery of their war-torn country. However, it is not long before they realize what they have got themselves into, particularly when Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels (Johannes Silberschneider) falls for the Latina charms of Macarena. German actress of Fassbinder fame Hanna Schygulla makes a cameo appearance as the wizened wife of the lustful propaganda minister. La Nina de Tus Ojos competed in the 49th Berlin International Film Festival in 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Spanish author Manuel Vincent, this drama chronicles the coming-of-age of a young man who grew up in Spain during the late '50s, the time when Franco's regime was dominating the country. The film opens in 1957 as Manuel returns from boarding school to his home village in Valencia. While trying to readjust to village life and his old friends and family, Manuel joins the ranks among those who follows El Bola, a cigar-chomping, portly, boisterous fellow with an official demeanor that has everyone around him fooled into thinking him a man with high-ranking connections. El Bola decides it is time for Manuel to lose his virginity and so tries to convince the youth to visit the town brothel, but Manuel is not interested. His heart has been captured by a pretty young girl to whom he has never spoken. Back at home, his father disdains Manuel's dream of becoming a writer and makes him choose between the priesthood and becoming a lawyer. Manuel chooses the latter and so goes off to school in Valencia. No sooner does he arrive than he sees the pretty girl and follows her to Malvarrosa Beach where he encounters a wedding party as they are being thrown out of a cafe by one of Franco's generals who wants the place for his own debauched revelry. In school, Manuel meets a professor with subversive ideas who provides him with a number of banned books. So it goes for Manuel with each subsequent anecdote commenting slyly upon the effects of fascism on the Spanish people ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This is a film of the dramatic Spanish language novel Celestina, written in 1499. In many ways, it resembles Romeo and Juliet, particularly in the need for secrecy in the wooing of a beloved and the troubles resulting from that secrecy. Callisto (Juan Diego Botto) enlists the aid of his roguish servants and the mature woman Celestina (Terele Pavez) to help him win the heart of Melibea (Penelope Cruz). In gratitude for Celestina's efforts, he rewards her with a sentimentally valuable article of clothing. When Callisto's two jealous servants hear of this, they try to get Celestina to give them what they feel is their "share" for their efforts on Callisto's behalf. Failing in this, they kill Celestina. Her friends discover her corpse and vow to get revenge for her murder, but it is Callisto whom they blame for it, not his miserable servants. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This historical drama, set in the '20s examines the strange, brief reign of a Latin American dictator. It was alternately shot in Havana and Mexico. The story is set in an unspecified Latin country and chronicles the daily life of the tyrannical dictator. One of his day's highlights is the signing of execution orders. His insane daughter must be physically restrained and is tied to her bed. Also included in the tale are a group of picked on Spaniards, a psychic woman, and effeminate Spanish ambassador, and a rebellious general. The film contains no violence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In Ay, Carmela, filmmaker Carlos Saura again harks back to his bitter childhood memories of the Spanish Civil War. Carmela (Carmen Maura), Paulino (Andres Pajares) and Gustavete (Gabino Diego) are travelling entertainers, trouping through Spain to perform their act before the Republican troops. Early one morning, the three artistes find themselves in Franco-controlled territory. In mute terror, the captive entertainers witness the deaths of several innocents at the hands of the fascists. Then they are forced to do a show for their captors. Swallowing their pride and hiding their disgust, the entertainers agree to do so. But Carmela is unable to go through with this humiliation: before an assembly a Francoites, she defiantly sings a paean to the Loyalist cause...and in so doing, achieves martyrdom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This wacky comedy depicts a single day in and around the set of a movie on the Spanish Civil War being filmed in a working class Madrid neighborhood. Paloma, (Ana Belen), a bored housewife with a husband who is too concerned about being exploited by "the ruling classes" to work, must evade the romantic advances of an unattractive fishmonger, and cope with the attentions the male lover of a homosexual fascist is showering on her daughter. Meanwhile, she engages in a tryst with the equally bored fading film star Luis Doncel (Juan Luis Gallardo). Everyone on the set is waiting for the director to show up, but he's too heavily involved in a domestic dispute to work. Meanwhile, a series of strikes has brought Madrid to a virtual standstill. Director/co-writer Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez manages to satirize virtually every aspect of contemporary Spanish society, as well as relationships between the sexes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A European humanitarian organization tries to bring relief to the famine-stricken Sahel region of North Africa in this satirical comedy. The convoy of five trucks is victimized by rebel guerillas and marauding tribes and is soon lost in the desert. When two party members try to leave, they end up being eaten by cannibals, and the Africans end up being irritated that the relief aid does more harm than good. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this romantic farce, Macarena is a pretty French girl who has come to Cordoba in southern Spain in search of a man she believes may be her father. She finally tracks him and his clan down in a minor city museum: they have become squatters there during one of the museum curator's brief absences. Two policemen have been given the job of persuading the wacky family to vacate the premises. Their response to these blandishments is to threaten to destroy the museum's treasures. At the same time her maybe-father's two sons are putting the make on her, one of the policemen has taken up residence with the family and is dancing with them, as a police SWAT team prepares to storm the building. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Eschewing a realistic depiction of Franco's Spain in the 1940s, director Fernando Trueba uses a touch of sarcastic humor in painting a 16-year-old's brief stay in a TB sanatorium. Manolo (Jorge Sanz) is one of two brothers who ends up in a tuberculosis sanatorium that is specifically designed for somewhat younger children. Manolo's problem is that he is experiencing the first stirrings of sexual desire and cannot look upon the female nurses and staff with the innocent eyes of the other children. His first overtures to one of the nurses meets with rejection; in fact, the nurse leaves the sanatorium. Manolo really asks for trouble when he falls for another pretty nurse and she herself becomes attracted to him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This entertaining comedy is set in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War when a group of Republican soldiers sneak into a village in enemy territory to steal a bull with plans of butchering it to feed themselves. Fate and the bull itself, however, have other plans. One of the surreptitious bull-snatchers knows the village well -- he grew up there, but that advantage alone cannot guarantee their success, as it turns out. The group of five would-be thieves dress themselves in uniforms of the Nationalist troops in an attempt to dissimulate their true identity. But instead of a neat getaway with a bull in tow, they are caught up in the "correo" or running of the bull, they get involved in a religious procession, and in the end, watch as the bull breaks out of a flimsy ring in a bullfight and heads for the hills. Still hungry, the group of men now have to worry about getting back to their own battalion before they are found out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide