Ten days of ¡Viva! fever hit the Cornerhouse Cinema this month, with the return of their highly acclaimed Spanish and Latin American Film Festival. With nearly 60 features and documentaries, as well as a set of hotly anticipated shorts, the festival covers everything from blockbusters to truly independent numbers.
Offerings from every corner of the Hispanic world will be gracing Cornerhouse’s screens, in addition to talks by some of the biggest names in Spanish cinema. Juan Antonio Bayona, director of The Orphanage, will make an appearance at the festival along side his supernatural thriller, which was the highest grossing Spanish film of last year. Another hit coming to Manchester with its creator in tow is Under the Stars. Nominated for seven Goyas (the Spanish Oscars) including Best Director for Félix Viscarret, this quirky tale of an unlikely friendship between an introverted little girl and an egotistic jazz musician looks set to dazzle.
Amongst the documentaries to look out for is El Telón de Azúcar. Directed by Camila Guzmán Urzúa, daughter of acclaimed Chilean director Patricio Guzmán, the film chronicles the filmmaker’s return to Cuba, where she contrasts her own rosy memories of a childhood spent on this island with the realities of modern Cuban life.
Another controversial contribution, The City Devouring its Daughters, investigates the disappearance and murder of hundreds of women in the Mexican border town of Juárez, and the web of corruption and disregard that surrounds the official inquiry into their deaths.
¡Viva! also hosts the UK premiere of Mexican film Déficit, the directorial debut of Gael García Bernal, as well as many other feature-length contributions from Latin America.
So, whether you are a connoisseur of Hispanic cinema or simply a fan of the recent spate of Spanish blockbuster releases, ¡Viva! certainly has something for you.
¡Viva! runs 6th – 16th March at the Cornerhouse
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