The programme for this year’s ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival has been revealed – including 11 UK cinema premieres.
The festival opens on Friday, 6 August with the UK premiere of Ariel Winograd’s El Robo del siglo, the wildly entertaining true crime story from Argentina, which plots the events of one of the most famous and complex heists in the country’s history.
There are three premieres on Saturday, 7 August, including Valentina Reyes’ quietly moving drama Las Mujeres de mi casa, the sun-drenched road movie Nora, and the dazzling and surreal Mosh.
On Monday, 9 August there will be the premiere of the charmingly tender El Inconviente, while on Thursday, 12 August, there is a pair of premieres – the Colombian tale of fledgling love in the shadow of police brutality, Salvador, and the Spanish documentary Billy, detailing the notorious Francoist Antonio González Pacheco.
On Friday, 13 August, the Bolivian social thriller Pseudo will receive its UK premiere, while on Monday, 16 August there’s the compelling La Última primavera, in which a family recreate the true story of their marginalisation and eviction from La Cañada Real, the largest shanty town in Europe, on the outskirts of Madrid. And rounding off this year’s premiered is Diablada, based on the true story of the Alto Hospicio serial killer, who operated in Chile with total impunity from 1998-2001.
It’s a particularly strong year for Spanish titles, with eight films from Spain coming to our big screen in this summery edition. As well as visiting the sunny coast of the Basque Country with Nora, audiences can make their way to Valencia in Iciar Bollaín’s latest film, comic drama La Boda de Rosa then take a deep dive into post-dictatorship Spain with the epically proportioned and wonderfully absorbing documentary El Año del descubrimiento.
There is a trio of fantastic dramas from Chile this year, including the passionately romantic film Los Fuertes, which breaks new ground in Chilean cinema as a charmingly up-beat, same-sex love story.
There are also titles from Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Mexico in this, the 27th edition of the festival.
As always, the festival programme will also include special events, including a preview screening of Mexican auteur Michel Franco’s Nuevo orden, which will be introduced by Jason Wood, author of the newly published The Faber Book of Mexican Cinema and HOME’s Creative Director: Film and Culture.
There are 18 films in total across 17 days, curated by Rachel Hayward, Head of Film at HOME, Jessie Gibbs, ¡Viva! Festival Coordinator, and Andy Willis, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford and HOME’s Senior Visiting Curator: Film.
Tickets will be on general sale from Friday 27th July, with priority booking available for HOME Friends and HOME Members.
For full details of the programme, visit homemcr.org/viva2021