Diego Maradona (Dir. Asif Kapadia)
In the Shakespearean tragedy that is the movie 'Diego Maradona', master documentary story-teller Asif Kapadia offers football's most revered and loathed protagonist a chance for redemption
OUR TIME (Dir. Carlos Reygadas)
‘Our Time’ (Nuestro Tiempo) 2018 challenges our ideas of man’s condition in life. Juan Díaz and his beautiful wife Esther run a ranch in Mexico rearing fighting bulls. They have a perfect relationship in an open marriage, or so…
Top 10 Summer Latin Films
Latin Cinema is in full bloom. Here’s a glimpse at the Latin and Spanish films coming up this summer to whisk you away from the heat.
‘She’s Not There, You see Another Person’
The Cervantes Theatre has just opened its third Season of New Spanish Playwriting with the inventive and award-winning ‘La Realidad’ (The Reality) by Uruguayan playwright, Denise Despeyroux - the story of two identical twin…
Spirits, Birds, Omens, Dreams and Death.
Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego talk about their film ‘Birds Of Passage’, which relates the extraordinary narrative of how the incipient and often casual trade of Marijuana lead to the notorious drug’s trade in Colombia and…
Birds of Passage (Dir. Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra)
Through a series of five ‘songs’ or ‘cantos’, ‘Birds of Passage’ tells the painful story of how the drugs trade began in Colombia in the 1960s. From modest beginning, the Wayuu tribe found themselves involved as it began. The…
West Side Story @ Manchester Royal Exchange
Mexican actress Gabriela Garcia's performance is worth a trip to Manchester, says Elizabeth Mistry
A Boy Called Sailboat (Dir. Cameron Nugent)
Once upon a time, a sick grandmother asked her grandson to write her a song on his little guitar. When he did, his song set a series of transformations in motion in this heart-warming fable.
Division Ave (2019)
This aptly named short film, ‘Division Ave’, illustrates the divide between immigrant workers and locals, and the struggle that these workers face, usually without work visas, to try to provide for their loved ones back home.
Messenger on a White horse (2019) El Mensajero
‘Messenger on a White Horse’ is a moving documentary that portrays the courage of Robert (Bob) Cox, Editor in Chief of THE BUENOS AIRES HERALD who dared to publish information exposing the human rights abuses carried out by the…
Breaking the Mould in Paraguay
Marcelo Martinessi’s fascinating study of a lesbian couple affected by social mores in Paraguayan society is submitted to the 91st Academy Awards.
YULI (2018) – Born to Dance
YULI is a skilful adaptation by Paul Laverty (I, Daniel Blake) of the dancer Carlos Acosta’s life story as revealed in his autobiography 'No Way Home' Directed by Icíar Bollaín, the film conveys a sensitive intimacy…
EVERYBODY KNOWS - When a Secret is not a Secret
When a young teenager is kidnapped at a family wedding in a small Spanish town, layer-by-layer, dark secrets, unsatisfied revenge and rivalries are revealed. Unable to contact the police, the whole family is trapped in a fraught…
Adolescence and Obsession in ‘A Trip to the Moon’
The Argentine director Joaquín Cambre talks to Latino Life about his own life and his award-winning opèra prima, A TRIP TO THE MOON, about an adolescent who, feeling out of sync with his family and his world, focuses his…
Gledys Ibarra: I am testimony that 'una negra del barrio' with a mission can succeed
Gledys Ibarra broke the mould back in Venuezuela as one of the country's first black telenovela stars, having starred in a string of popular Venezuelan telenovelas that have been translated into many languages and shown all…
Two New Brazilian films revel in gore
Aficionados of fantasy and horror had a few treats in the 2018 London Film Festival, notably emerging from Brazil, The Cannibal Club 2018 (Guto Parente) and Morto não Fala (The Nightshifter 2018): one a minimalistic horror film (…
Chile's Artistic Renaissance Questions the Past
From decades of silence and a few lone voices such as documentary-maker Patricio Guzman, has come a flourishing arts industry in Chile, with film studios like Fabula, Oscar-winning directors like Sebastian Lelio, and artists like…
Elliot Grove: The beating heart of RAINDANCE
London is a creative hub, and the number of film festivals over the year are truly astonishing. They represent a myriad of countries from China, Latin America, Brazil, India and Africa to local British productions. The Raindance…
TIDES (2017) Unwinding down winding canals
Shot in mesmerizing Black & White against a backdrop of Surrey’s serene canals, a group of forty something friends who have not seen each other for a while, decide to spend a weekend on a narrow boat to rekindle their…
DEAR CHICKENS: A moving short Film takes aim for the Oscars.
DEAR CHICKENS (2018) is a powerful short film that premiered at the LA International Short Film Festival in July 2018. Directed by Swiss/Mexican Mauro Mueller it is now officially eligible to compete for Best Live Action Short…
'ROMA' by Alfonso Cuarón sweeps the boards at the BAFTAs.
ROMA (2018) by Alfonso Cuarón, a masterpiece of cinema, has been crowned the outstanding film of 2018 at the BAFTAs. Semi-autobiographical, it was created with deep affection in homage to a person who was and remains of huge…
Surviving Venezuela
‘Surviving Venezuela: Smuggling Dreams’, directed by Anglo-Peruvian Alexander ‘Lali’ Houghton is a TV documentary filmed in 2017 for ‘Witness’, Al Jazeera. It was short listed for a Rory Peck Award (2018), as well for the Foreign…
Carmen & Lola (2018) A forbidden Gypsy Love
Spanish director Arantxa Echevarría disturbs the status quo with her opera prima about love between two teenage girls from a close-knit Roma Community in the Vallecas suburb of Madrid. Corina J Poore catches up with the exuberant…
Nae Pasaran(2018) Scottish Solidarity to Powerful Effect from Afar.
NAE PASARAN (2018) is a stunning documentary written, directed and produced by Felipe Bustos Sierra. It is the moving true story of how a group of engineers working in a Scottish factory did their bit to help prevent more…
Bridge or Barrier? 10.000km (2014) New Release
Can a modern relationship survive long distance? Facebook, Skype and social media are designed to bring people closer, are they not? The award-winning opera prima ‘10.000 km (2014)’ of Carlos Marques-Marcet is finally available…
YERMA Poisoned Blood and the Aesthetics of Anguish
YERMA at the Cervantes Theatre, presented in both Spanish and English versions, is the last of the powerful ‘Rural Trilogy’ written by Federico Garcia Lorca and here directed by Jorge de Juan. The first was ‘Blood Wedding’, then…
Myth or Reality, and Does it Matter?
Supposedly based on a true story about Basque farm lad, who started to grow uncontrollably to became Europe’s tallest man, reaching a height of 2,42m, Handia swept the boards at the 2018 Goya Awards, winning 10 out of their 13…
A Big Budget for a Big Man
HANDIA (Giant) swept the boards at the 2018 GOYA AWARDS, with 13 nominations, and carrying away 10 awards. In particular it won Best original Script, Best New Actor, as well as awards for Cinematography, Editing, Special Effects…
Three Short Films: Madre, Piggy and Fifteen
Corina J Poore reviews three Latino offerings from the 'Shorts' programme at this year's The BFI London Film Festival: ‘MADRE (2017)’ by Spanish writer/director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, ‘PIGGY (Cerdita) 2018’, (14 min…
Truth or Illusion?
The unusual tale of a commune in the south of Chile takes us on an unexpected journey.It is based on a true story that immediately suggests that upsetting developments may take place, as indeed they do. Produced by the creative…
The Girl Who Stole the Show
EIZA GONZALEZ REYNA in ‘Baby Driver (2017)’ won us over completely, says Latinolife film critic Corina Poore who was impressed by the rising Mexican star at the end of the summer's Pop up screens.