6 Spanish films and co-productions will participate at the 33rd annual Vancouver International Film Festival.

The Creator of the Jungle (Sobre la marxa)

Directed by Jordi Morató. In the heart of Catalonia, near the village of Argelaguer, lies the wooded terrain of an artist, architect, actor and storyteller of a different stripe: a 72-year-old eccentric nicknamed "Garrell" who, for 45 years, has been playing King of the Jungle and handcrafting elaborate tree houses, labyrinths, waterfalls and towers in the road-side forest. Documentarian Jordi Morató captures Garrell’s beautiful world in all its delightful wonder.
Building on the extraordinary "action movies" Garrell has shot in this environment with some very game extras and young "Tarzans," director Jordi Morato creates a record of obsession —haunting, funny and inspiring all at once. There’s sadness as humanity intrudes—first with vandalism, then with public construction and bureaucratic regulations —provoking Garrell to burn down his works. But each time he emerges triumphant, erecting new monuments to his passion. He’s an “outsider artist” of the highest order, blessed and cursed with a gift that society has no room for. What Morato offers us are Garrell’s own self-portraits on video, a visual record of his jungle masterpieces and a spectator’s sense of awe.

On September 26 at 10 am at Vancity Theatre; September 30 at 10:15 am at International Village #8; and October 5 at 6:30 pm at International Village #8.

Living is Easy with Eyes Closed (Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados)

Directed by David Trueba. The title, of course, comes from the lyrics to The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever. Likewise, this charming, nostalgic road movie is inspired by the true story of a high-school English teacher—and Fab Four devotee—who drove across Spain in 1966 to meet his idol John Lennon on the set of How I Won the War in Almeria in hopes of clarifying some lyrics he couldn’t quite understand.
From this historical tidbit, writer-director David Trueba has concocted an engaging comic drama, imagining the interactions of bookish Antonio (Javier Cámara) with two teenage runaways he picks up along the way: Belén (Natalia de Molina), a pregnant girl fleeing a convent, and Juanjo (Francesc Colomer), a boy escaping a dictatorial father. Trueba lightly evokes a period of transition, when the Franco dictatorship could no longer shield the younger generation from pop culture influences that were opening eyes and ears across Europe and beyond. Most touching, though, is Cámara—familiar to North American audiences from Almodóvar’s Talk to Her and I’m So Excited! —who essays a sweetly affectionate portrait of fandom that’s at once innocent, intelligent and sincere.

On October 3 at 1 pm and October 8 at 6 pm at Centre for Performing Arts.

Beautiful Youth (Hermosa juventud)

Directed by Jaime Rosales (Spain, France). Snapshot of Europe: as of June 2014, the youth unemployment rate in Spain was sitting at 54%. Typical of their number would be Natalia (fresh-faced Ingrid García Jonsson), the heroine of Jaime Rosales’ social-realist drama. A 20-year-old still living with her younger brother and single mom, she’s also pregnant by boyfriend Carlos (Carlos Rodríguez). With no jobs in the offing and a few hundred Euros on the table, they agree to appear in a porno… In fact, we only see their pre-film interview. However, that in itself is one of the more intimate sequences in a movie of (metaphorical) closed doors and low ceilings, evidence that the couple do have feelings for each other, even if 21st century neo-liberalism seems destined to stamp out any residual affection, idealism or optimism they might harbour. A more promising exit from the poverty trap comes in the form of court-ordered reparations for which Carlos is the beneficiary. But will the payments ever materialize?
Rosales (The Hours of the Day) doesn’t hold much stock in easy answers —it’s certainly bracing to think how different this film is from, say, Kevin Smith’s lackadaisical Zack and Miri Make a Porno— but only vouches hope in terms of artistic integrity and the palpable authenticity of the performances. In a striking series of Instagram, Skype and iPhone montages, he also suggests something about how digital technology allows the new generation to grow apart together.

On September 26 at 1:45 pm at International Village #10; September 27 at 11 am at International Village #8; and October 2 at 9:15 pm at Rio Theatre.

The Liberator (Libertador)

Directed by Alberto Arvelo (Spain, Venezuela). The extraordinary life of South American hero Simón Bolívar (the mesmerizing Édgar Ramírez) is given appropriately epic treatment in Alberto Arvelo’s sumptuous period piece. Beginning in the early 1800s and spanning 30 years in the great revolutionary’s struggle to free South Americans from the yoke of Spanish occupation, Arvelo’s impressive achievement is a rousing and entertaining corrective to Bolívar’s relative anonymity in North America.
Beginning with an attempt on his life in the 1820s, the film flashes back to the young Bolívar’s aristocratic lifestyle in Venezuela and takes a resolutely psychological approach to how this child of privilege evolved into a courageous man of principle (the script is by Timothy J. Sexton, who co-wrote the exceptional Children of Men). Arvelo and Sexton touch all the bases —Bolívar’s marriage, his wife’s death six months later, his dissolute days in Paris afterwards, and his political awakening— before beginning to unspool their epic canvas, starting with Bolívar’s decision to use his wealth to fund a small group of insurrectionists. Political intrigue alternates with battle scenes of grand scope, as Bolívar builds a following and begins to change the world. Ramírez inhabits the role of this Venezuelan hero much as he did another very different Venezuelan icon, Carlos the Jackal, in Olivier Assayas’ epic Carlos. On screen for nearly every second, he gives depth and moral weight to the narrative, while not flinching in the face of some of Bolívar’s less savoury moments. He is helped by a uniformly fine supporting cast that includes a delightful Danny Huston as a gambler willing to bet on the young revolutionary.

On September 28 at 3 pm and October 5 at 9:15 pm at Centre for Performing Arts.

Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes)

Directed by Damian Szifron (Argentina, Spain). For sheer entertainment value, you’ll be hard-pressed to beat this outrageous, aptly named anthology film. One of Cannes’ most buzzed about discoveries, Damián Szifrón’s third feature plays like a calling card from a preposterously talented newcomer, it’s so chock-full of crazy ideas and verve.
Szifrón gives us half a dozen stories for the price of one. Aside from the Argentine locales, there isn’t much to link them, except that each tale strips away at the veneer of civilized society to reveal something more primal and animalistic underneath. (No doubt that accounts for the gloriously bestial credit sequence, which is truly one for the ages.) Roald Dahl or O. Henry would relish the macabre yarn about the waitress in an empty late-night diner who realizes that the boorish customer she’s serving is the man who ruined her life; then there’s the bride who discovers her husband has been unfaithful and exacts her revenge during an unforgettable wedding party; the best (or worst) road rage episode you’ll ever see; Ricardo Darín taking on Buenos Aires’ municipal parking enforcers, and oh, that incident on the plane! It’s at least a week’s worth of water-cooler conversation in one big fix.

On October 4 at 6 pm and October 6 at 3:30 pm at Centre for Performing Arts.

The Wild Years (Els anys salvatges)

Directed by Ventura Durall (Spain, Ethiopia). Some of this year’s most memorable on-screen characters are to be found in a most unexpected place. Ventura Durall’s The Wild Years is a sprawling documentary about three pre-teen boys —Daniel, Habtom and Yohannes— who are struggling to survive in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Intimate interviews reveal their staggering courage, strength and maturity, while also exposing their pain and the daily challenges of life on the street. The film transports us into the nooks and crannies of their cloistered world with artfully composed cinematography, giving us a true sense of their lives and personalities. But Durall also wisely retains a certain distance from this place we cannot fully understand.
Shot intermittently over three years, the film captures how the boys’ lives develop, sometimes with heartbreaking and even shocking results. It also offers invaluable insight into a way of life faced by 270,000 children in this one city alone. Having fled or lost their families, they construct their own codes of conduct and ways of living. Murder, gangs, homelessness, friendship, love… The Wild Years is widely encompassing, thoughtful and profoundly human. If one of documentary filmmaking’s most vital virtues is providing the viewer with a look at parts of the world rarely seen, then this is essential cinema: a unique, rare and empathetic window into the lives of those neglected by law and society.

On October 8 at 07:15 pm and October 10 at 12:30 pm at The Cinematheque.

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Vancouver

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Various venues in Vancouver

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604-683-3456

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