To honour one of the great couples in modern cinema, this year’s MORO SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL features a special focus on Oscar Winners Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem with two titles in which they co-star –JAMÓN JAMÓN, their first film together which is celebrating its 30thanniversary and LOVING PABLO, based on Virginia Vallejo´s bestselling memoir about her love affair with notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, written and directed by Fernando Leon Aranoa whose latest triumph, The Good Boss is screening in cinemas nationally.
Presented by Palace Cinemas, The 2022 Moro Spanish Film Festival is a sensational line-up of the finest Spanish language cinema from Spain and Latin America and Australia featuring famous faces, including Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Oscar Martínez, Paco León and Blanca Portillo along with exciting emerging talent.
The rich programme of thirty four films consists of twenty-one features from Spain, ten from across Latin America including Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic and another three from Australia and the USA and features a wide range of genres from period-set drama, documentary, realist drama, to satire and riotous comedy.
A surprising jewel in the crown of the Spanish Film Festival is the Australian produced, OUR VOICES (Nuestras Voces) This moving documentary, directed by Diana Páez, tells the story of a group of Spanish-speaking migrants who arrived in Victoria between the 1960s and 1980s, showcasing their contribution to the social and cultural fabric of Australia.
Shot in Melbourne, it features testimonies from Simon Palomares, actor, director and comedian; Telmo Languiller, Former MP – Speaker Legislative Assembly in the Parliament of Victoria; Rafaela Torres, Order of Australia award recipient; Alejandro Vargas and Alfredo Muñoz.
A project which aims to increase understanding of the migrant and refugee experiences, Our Voices is a powerful reflection on the strength and resilience of immigrants.
Opening the Festival is the Australian Premiere of the much-anticipated OFFICIAL COMPETITION (Competencia oficial). Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martínez star in Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat’s ingenious, icy behind-the-scenes satire of movie making.
Far from the gloss of subject and production of OFFICIAL COMPETITION is the powerful AMA, a cinema verite super naturalism narrative about a mother and daughter who are evicted from their home and forced to fend for themselves on the streets.
Shot largely in Benidorm, its a tough little cookie of a movie featuring a couple of tough little cookies navigating the traditional tropes of motherhood on the stormy seas of social, economic and emotional inequality.
Spanish cinema is renowned for its supernatural cinema, and psychological horror gets a good going over in THE HOUSE OF SNAILS (La casa del caracol) starring Javier Rey and Raúl Arévalo and Paz Vega.
A retro Seventies vibe adds superbly to the schlock shudder Grand Guignol sensibility of neo Gothic goings on as a writer seeking seclusion succumbs to an ancient curse.
Don’t be tardy, Tickets on sale now.
MORO SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL Sydney 19 Apr – 15 May: Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema.
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