Spanish movies at TIFF 2016

Discover the 2016 selection of Spanish movies at the Toronto International Film Festival.

A Monster Calls

Directed by J.A. Bayona, USA / Spain, 108 minutes, Gala.
On September 10 at 3:30PM at Roy Thomson Hall.
On September 11 at 10 am at Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
On September 16 at 5:45 pm at Scotiabank 1.

Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver and Felicity Jones star in this adaptation of the award-winning children’s book by Patrick Ness, about a lonely young boy struggling with the imminent death of his terminally ill mother who is befriended by a friendly, shambling monster that arrives in his room nightly to tell him stories.

General Report on Certain Matters of Interest for a Public Screening

Directed by Pere Portabella, Spain, Cinematheque.
On September 15 at 11:45 am at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3.

The great filmmaker Pere Portabella’s monumental 1976 documentary recounts the dawn of democracy in Spain following the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

General Report II. The New Abduction of Europe

Directed by Pere Portabella, Spain, Wavelengths.
On September 15 at 6:15 pm at Jackman Hall.
On September 16 at 9:15 am at Jackman Hall.
On September 18 at 6 pm at Jackman Hall.

Pere Portabella follows his masterful 1976 documentary General Report –an epic survey of the Spanish social and political landscape in the wake of Franco– with a sequel that examines contemporary Spain as a microcosm of the economic, political, social, and ecological crises currently affecting Europe.

J: Beyond Flamenco

Directed by Carlos Saura, Spain, Masters.
On September 13 at 7:15 pm at Scotiabank 3.
On September 15 at 9 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema.
On September 16 at 12:30 pm at Scotiabank 1.

The new film from legendary Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura (Carmen, Tango) captures the vivacity and charisma of the jota, a waltz-like castanet dance with its origins in Saura’s home province of Aragon.

Julieta

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, Masters.
On September 11 at 6 pm at Visa Screening Room.
On September 13 at 12:15 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 2.

Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar adapts three stories from Canadian Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro for this time-tripping tale about the relationship and eventual rupture between a Madrid teacher and her beloved daughter.

Mimosas

Directed by Oliver Laxe, Spain / Morocco / France / Qatar, Wavelengths.
On September 10 at 5:15 pm at Jackman Hall.
On September 12 at 9 am at Jackman Hall.

Winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique, Oliver Laxe’s mesmerizing, minimalist “Eastern western” follows a caravan transporting the body of a sheik to his remote resting place in the perilous wilderness of the Moroccan desert.

Neruda

Directed by Pablo Larraín, Chile / Argentina / Spain / France, Special Presentation.
On September 12 at 9:30 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 1.
On September 14 at 1:30 pm at Winter Garden Theatre.
On September 18 at 12 pm at Scotiabank 3.

Pablo Larraín (The Club, No, Tony Manero) weaves an engrossing metafictional fable around the 1948 manhunt for celebrated poet and politician Pablo Neruda, who goes underground when Chile outlaws communism and is pursued by an ambitious police inspector (Gael García Bernal) hoping to make a name for himself by capturing the famous fugitive.

Pan’s Labyrinth

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Mexico / Spain / USA, Cinematheque.
On September 10 at 12:30 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 2.

Guillermo del Toro’s darkly beautiful fairy tale –about a young girl who discovers a magical underworld of both beauty and horror in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War– won three Academy Awards and has been hailed as a modern classic.

Politics, Instructions Manual

Directed by Fernando León de Aranoa, Spain, TIFF Docs.
On September 10 at 4:15 pm at Scotiabank 2.
On September 11 at 11 am at Jackman Hall.
On September 18 at 8:30 pm at Scotiabank 3.

A fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary about the rise of Podemos, the insurgent Spanish political party founded on the basis of a nationwide anti-austerity movement that dramatically upended the country’s traditional, hidebound two-party system.

Tamara and the Ladybug

Directed by Lucía Carreras, Mexico/Spain, Contemporary World Cinema.
On September 09/ at 4 pm at Scotiabank 13.
On September 10 at 2:30 pm at Scotiabank 8.
On September 18 at 4:15 pm at Scotiabank 11.

Two women, living on the margins of their society, become the unlikely caretakers for a lost baby, in director Lucía Carreras’ compelling and heartfelt exploration of loneliness, female friendship, and the social ills afflicting contemporary Mexico.

The Death of Louis XIV

Directed by Albert Serra, France/Portugal/Spain, Wavelengths.
On September 10 at 6:30 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3.
On September 12 at 12 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 4 – Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema.

French cinema legend Jean-Pierre Léaud takes the title role as the expiring French monarch in the stylistically rigorous and strangely transcendent new film from visionary Spanish auteur Albert Serra (Story of My Death.)

The Fury of a Patient Man

Directed by Raúl Arévalo, Spain, Discovery.
On September 10 at 8:30 pm at Scotiabank 4.
On September 12 at 6:15 pm at Scotiabank 3.
On September 16 at 3:15 pm at Scotiabank 4.

The tentative romance between a gentle Madrid labourer and a working single mother becomes a struggle for survival when the woman’s violent boyfriend returns from prison, in the gritty, suspenseful debut feature from popular Spanish actor Raúl Arévalo (Ghost Graduation, DarkBlueAlmostBlack.)

Shorts

025 Sunset Red

Directed by Laida Lertxundi, USA / Spain, Wavelengths Short.
On September 09 at 7 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 4 – Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema.

Laida Lertxundi continues her exploration of the American West with the intimately scaled 025 Sunset Red, which folds in autobiography as she looks back to her parents’ radical activism in Spain.

Burning Mountains that Spew Flame

Directed by Helena Giron and Samuel M. Delgado, Spain.
On September 09/ at 7 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 4 – Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema.

Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado’s Burning mountains that spew flame takes a mysterious voyage down into the depths of one of the longest volcanic tunnels in Europe in order to excavate an idiosyncratic history of resistance.

Decorado

Directed by Alberto Vazquez, Spain / France, Shortcuts 09.
On September 13 at 9:30 pm Scotiabank 14.
On September 18 at 7:15 pm at Scotiabank 11.
On September 17 at 6:45 pm at Jackman Hall.

From the brilliant mind of award-winning director Alberto Vázquez comes the animated vision of a world gone mad. Is this bizarre dystopian landscape real? Or are we all just living through set pieces in some strange movie?