Ill Fares the Land (Bill Bryden, 1983)
BY PABLO DE CASTRO
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay:
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.
This blog is usually devoted to Spanish films, mostly in the domain of social cinema, so an entry discussing a Scottish film about St Kilda is a rarity and will need some generosity from the editors to get it published. This said, this is a very special and little-know film: the Wikipedia entry for the islands of St Kilda (checked on the 6th of May 2018) mentions this film “is not currently on commercial release”. There is in fact no official poster for this film, just this.
El pastor (The Shepherd, 2016)
Written and directed by Jonathan Cenzual Burley
Starring: Maribel Iglesias, Miguel Martín, Alfonso Mendiguchía
BY PABLO DE CASTRO
The 23rd edition of the extraordinary Spanish-speaking VIVA Festival Manchester took place just a couple of months ago. The film section is just one area of a much wider festival which addresses all means of artistic and cultural expression, including theatre, dance and visual arts. Once the festival was over, a few selected jewels started touring the country (same as the ‘Best of the IDFA’ tours The Netherlands: this will typically happen when cinema is seen as a cultural activity beyond business). These hidden gems have recently arrived to our own very Glasgow, and oh dear, the three selected pieces happen to arrive from Latin America. Read More…
Sigo Siendo – Kachkaniraqmi (I am still here, 2012)
Directed by Javier Corcuera
Written by Javier Corcuera and Ana de la Prada
Starring: Máximo Damián, Félix Quispe “Duco”, “Palomita”
BY ÚRSULA COX
In Quechua Chanka (from the Ayacucho province in the Peruvian Andes) when two dear old friends meet after a long time the chosen greeting is “¡Kachkaniraqmi!” to express that, despite everything, one still is, still exists, is still here or, in its plural version (Quechua in all its forms doesn’t differentiate between plural and singular), we are still here, we are still, despite the odds. Read More…
Spanish Film Review Club 