SBIFF’s ongoing film showcase “The Wave Film Festival” announces its highly anticipated line up for the 2nd edition. This edition will focus solely on an eclectic mix of brand new Spanish and Latin American films. The five day festival begins Wednesday April 29 and continues through Sunday, May 3, 2015 at the Riviera Theatre.
Recently, SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling appointed longtime Senior Programmer Mickey Duzdevich as Director of the Wave Film Festival. Said Mickey, “I'm excited for our newest edition of The Wave Film Festival as it will be a delight to honor Santa Barbara's Spanish and Latin American culture through the art of cinema. We've put together a fantastic group of new films from around the Spanish speaking world that I am sure everyone will love."
The official schedule, passes and tickets are available at www.sbiff.org.
THE LINEUP
BEHAVIOR (CONDUCTA)
Written and Directed by Ernesto Daranas
Chala is eleven years old and lives alone with his drug addict mother. He trains fighting dogs for a living, and this world of violence sometimes surfaces when he is at school. Carmela is his sixth grade teacher, for whom the boy feels affection and respect. One day she becomes ill and musts give up the school for several months. The new teacher, unable to understand Chala’s behaviour, sends him off to a reeducation school. When Carmela returns, she rebels against this measure and other transformations her class has been subjected to. The relation-ship between the veteran teacher and the boy grows stronger, but this mutual commitment will jeopardize their continuance at the school.
BETIBÚ
Directed by Miguel Cohan
When a renowned Argentine industrialist accused of murdering his wife is found dead at his home in an exclusive gated compound, the well known novelist Nurit Iscar (known as Betibú) is contracted to cover the story for a national newspaper. Teaming up with the paper’s veteran but now demoted crime reporter and the new US and Spanish-educated section head, whose interests initially lie elsewhere, the trio soon realise that this is no random crime but rather one in a series of murders that goes to the heart of the establishment. Mercedes Morán (Argentina’s Helen Mirren) takes centre stage in this taut, stylish conspiracy thriller where office politics blend with institutional corruption. Adapted from Claudia Piñeiro’s bestselling novel, Betibú offers noirish tones, narrative intrigue and an absorbing plot where nothing can be taken for granted.
DUST ON THE TONGUE (TIERRA EN LA LENGUA)
Written and Directed by Rubén Mendoza
Despite family patriarch Don Silvio’s abusive behavior toward friends and family, his magnetism has allowed him to remain the center of attention his entire life. When his death is imminent, he makes an unusual request—he asks two of his grandchildren to help him die. Will they take revenge? With an impeccable direction of actors and a seamless flow between fiction, documentary, and mockumentary, Rubén Mendoza displays surprising skill and boldness as he navigates the sensitive subject of veiled hostility between parents and offspring.
FLOWERS (LOREAK)
Directed by Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga
Basque construction worker Beñat expresses his secret love for the unhappily married, childless Ane (Nagore Aramburu), the female administrator on his worksite, by sending her anonymous, immaculately composed flower bouquets once a week. When Beñat is unexpectedly killed in a car accident, the flowers stop and so does the only brightness in Ane’s life – but when she uncovers the truth of her secret admirer, Ane begins to leave her own elaborate flower bouquets at the site of Beñat’s death, once a week. This leads Beñat’s unhappy widow, Lourdes, and his busybody mother, Tere (Itziar Aizpuru, star of For 80 Days), to learn there was more to their beloved Beñat than they thought they knew, and resolve to learn the truth from the unsuspecting Ane.
MAGICAL GIRL
Written and Directed by Carlos Vermut
Alicia, a sick child who dreams with the dress of her favorite Japanese series Magical Girl Yukiko. Luis, her father, will try to do everything in his hand to achieve it. But his fate intersects with Barbara, an attractive young woman with mental disorders and with Damian, a teacher retired from everything but from his troubled past. Luis, Barbara and Damian will be trapped in a world of blackmails, where instincts and reason will struggle in a tragic battle, changing their lives forever.
MARSHLAND (LA ISLA MÍNIMA)
Directed by Alberto Rodríguez
An atmospheric and highly-skilled detective story in the strong and dark tradition of Zodiac and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Alberto Rodriguez’s Marshland is one of the most awarded films in Goya Award history, winning 10 statuettes at the annual Spanish Academy Award ceremony this year. (Only The Sea Inside and Ay, Carmela! have won more.)
Set in 1980 in the wetlands of Rio Guadalquivir in southern Spain, Marshland has a palpable sense of heavy unease. Two teenage girls have disappeared, and two Madrid policemen arrive to investigate – Juan (Javier Gutierrez, winner of the Best Actor Goya) and Pedro (Raul Arevalo, in a very different role than his comedic turn in the Festival’s closing night film, Sidetracked). Yet suspicion and hostility mark from the townspeople, including the victims’ own parents, greet them. Ensnarled in upsetting discoveries and clues that only deepen the confusion and mystery, Marshland explores more than a potential murder – it upends the fearsome heart of a conservative faction of Spain still traumatized by the harsh light of post-Franco liberalism.
MR. KAPLAN
Written and Directed by Álvaro Brechner
Jacob Kaplan lives an ordinary life in Uruguay. Like many of his other Jewish friends, Jacob fled Europe for South America because of World War II. But now turning 76, he’s become rather grumpy, fed up with his community and his family’s lack of interest in its own heritage.
One beach bar may, however, provide him with an unexpected opportunity to achieve greatness and recover his family’s respect in the community : its owner, a quiet, elderly German, raises Mr. Kaplan suspicion of being a runaway Nazi.
Ignoring his family’s concerns about his health, Jacob secretly recruits Contreras, a more loyal than honest former police officer, to help him investigate. Together, they will try to repeat the historic capture of Adolf Eichmann : by unmasking and kidnapping the German and secretly taking him to Israel.
NEGOTIATOR
Written and Directed by Borja Cobeaga
Manu Aranguren is a Basque politician who acts as a mediator for the Spanish government in its negotiations with ETA. Far from being a solemn, calculated occasion, unexpected occurrences, slip-ups or misunderstandings soon kick in to influence the dialogue. And the personal relationship between negotiators will be key in solving the conflict.
ONE FOR THE ROAD (EN EL ÚLTIMO TRAGO)
Directed by Jack Zagha
Three eighty-year-old men embark in a road trip in order to fulfil the dying wish of a lifelong friend. In spite of the disapproval of their families and the limitations of their advanced age, they find themselves involved in a series of comical misadventures and meet a cast of colourful characters. Their journey alters their sense of self and their place in the world. There is, indeed, life after 80!
SPANISH AFFAIR (OCHO APELLIDOS VASCOS)
Directed by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro
No film in 2014 has tapped the Spanish zeitgeist to the astonishing level represented by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro’s Spanish Affair (Ocho apellidos vascos). On the surface, the film is a light-hearted, witty romantic comedy in the vein of Martínez-Lázaro’s earlier successes, including The Other Side of the Bed. In a Seville nightclub, stand-up comic Rafa (Dani Rovira) is smitten with the fiery Amaia (Clara Lago), and impulsively follows her trail back to her native Basque country after she leaves his bed the next morning. Amaia is none-too-pleased by Rafa’s lovelorn attentions, but he provides a convenient cover for her just-broken engagement, which she wishes to hide from her father Koldo.
THE SECOND MOTHER (QUE HORAS ELA VOLTA?)
Directed by Anna Muylaert
Val is the kind of live-in housekeeper who takes her work seriously. She wears a crisp maid's uniform while serving perfect canapés; she serves her wealthy São Paulo employers day in and day out while lovingly nannying their teenage son whom she's raised since toddlerhood. Everyone and everything in the elegant house has its place until one day, Val’s ambitious, clever daughter Jessica arrives from Val’s hometown to take the college entrance exams. Jessica’s confident, youthful presence upsets the unspoken yet strict balance of power in the household; Val must decide where her allegiances lie and what she's willing to sacrifice.
This project is funded in part by Cultural Promotion Funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.
Passes and tickets for The Wave Film Festival are available now. To purchase or for more information, visit www.sbiff.org or call 805-963-0023.
Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and educational organization dedicated to discovering and showcasing the best in independent and international cinema. SBIFF offers 11 days of 200+ films, tributes and symposiums that transforms beautiful downtown Santa Barbara, CA into a rich destination for film lovers which attract more than 90,000 attendees. SBIFF continues its commitment to education and the community through free programs like its 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking and Screenwriting Competitions, Mike’s Field Trip to the Movies, National Film Studies Program, AppleBox Family Films, 3rd Weekend and educational seminars. In recent years SBIFF has expanded its year round presence with regular screenings and Q&As with programs like Cinema Society, The Showcase and its Wave Film Festivals. For more information, please visit www.sbiff.org.