“New Spañish Cinema” is back for its 4th edition, bringing the best cinema made in Spain to Vancouver audiences. The vibrant Spanish culture is present on the West Coast of Canada.

On its fourth edition, New Spañish Cinema continues enriching and expanding the vision of the Spanish culture in the West Coast.

During four days, Spanish cinema will be in the spotlight with movies such as The spirit of the beehive or That was life. A perfect occasion to enjoy Spain’s culture and art of filmmaking. Come to the movies and have fun with good Spanish cinema.

Wild flowers

• On Friday, January 5 at 7 pm. Opening night, including Spanish food and flamenco. Buy tickets.
• On Monday, January 8 at 3 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Jaime Rosales, Spain, 2022, 107 minutes.
• Original title: Girasoles silvestres.
• In Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

Julia, a 22-year-old mother of two, falls in love with Óscar, a troubled boy with whom she embarks on a love affair. The more time they spend together, the more Julia asks herself if Óscar is the person she really needs by her side, prompting her to set out on a personal journey to find happiness for herself and for her family.

Close your eyes

• On Saturday, January 6 at 2:30 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Monday , January 8 at 7:20 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Victor Erice, Spain / Argentina, 2023, 169 minutes.
• Original title: Cerrar los ojos.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

Spanish auteur Víctor Erice returns to cinema after a three-decade-long absence with this personal reflection on memory, art and the passage of time. Set years after his lead actor and best friend, Julio, disappears suddenly from a film shoot, filmmaker Miguel Garay is approached by a TV show profiling this unsolved mystery. This sets in motion a series of encounters from Miguel’s past, including a meeting with Julio’s abandoned daughter.

That was life

• On Saturday, January 6 at 5:50 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Sunday, January 7 at 1 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by David Martin de los Santos, Spain, 2020, 109 minutes.
• Original title: La vida era eso.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

The first fiction feature by documentarist David Martín de los Santos is a coming-of-age tale about a woman in her seventies. María (Petra Martinez) is a 76 year-old Spanish woman living in Belgium with her taciturn husband in a nest long since emptied. When a heart attack sends her to the hospital, she meets a young patient, Verónica (Anna Castillo), who teaches her to smile a little, then to smoke, and finally to pay attention to her own desires. The quest takes her back to Spain —the source of her repression in the Franco years of her upbringing— and to the rough backwater that produced the rebel Verónica.

The Candidate

• On Saturday, January 6 at 8:10 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Sunday, January 7 at 5:40 pm. Buy tickets.
• Original title: El reino.
• Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain, 2018, 131 minutes.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen delivers an indictment of moral degradation in Spain’s halls of power. When the illicit dealings of a regional politician (Antonio de la Torre) fall under public scrutiny, the repercussions are far-reaching. His bid for higher office derailed, the anti-hero sets down a collision course with his own party to protect himself at all costs.

The spirit of the beehive

• On Sunday, January 7 at 3:30 pm. Buy tickets.
• On Monday January 8 at 1 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Víctor Erice, Spain, 1973, 98 minutes.
• Original title: El espíritu de la colmena.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

A traveling roadshow of the film Frankenstein comes to the small, Franco-era village where eight-year-old Ana (Ana Torrent), her sister Isabel (Isabel Telleria) and their family reside. Upon being exposed to the film, the siblings, especially the younger one, discuss the creature in the film as if it is real and Ana subsequently begins searching for the monster.

Memories of my father

• On Sunday, January 7 at 8:15 pm. Buy tickets.
• Directed by Fernando Trueba, Spain, 2020, 82 minutes.
• Original title: El Olvido que seremos.
• In Spanish English and Italian with English subtitles. Watch trailer.

With this intimate historical drama, Spanish director Fernando Trueba adapts Héctor Abad Faciolince’s popular memoir about his father, Héctor Abad Gómez, a Colombian doctor, professor and human rights activist who rose to prominence in the polarized, violent climate of Medellín during the 1970s. Played by Javier Cámara, Gómez is family man loved by all, but deeply worried about his nation’s inadequate public health and welfare systems. When cancer claims the life of one of his beloved daughters, Gómez devotes himself completely to the social and political causes of the time, at great personal risk.