On Sunday 5 October the London Spanish Film Festival (LSFF) celebrated its closing ceremony. This edition marked the 10th anniversary of an ever growing Festival in a city with an increasing percentage of Spanish population. Lets sum up this year’s best films.
Horror and black comedy
The black comedy ¿Quién mato a Bambi? was the closing night film. A “Pulp Fiction sort of story”, as described during the Q&A after the film, that follows a couple of protagonists and the violent and absurd misunderstandings in which they get involved. But the most surreal and mad film screened was, of course, Las Brujas De Zugarramurdi, directed by the enfant terrible of Spanish cinema, Alex de La Iglesia. There was plenty of violence, blood, fantasy and and horror well salted with dark humour and sex.
Light comedy
The festival opening ceremony premiered the celebrated Spanish comedy Tres bodas de más, from Javier Ruiz Caldera. The story starts when its protagonist, played by Inma Cuesta, is publicly dumped during a wedding banquet. Trest bodas de más features laughs and hilarious scenes from one of the most successful Spanish comedies of recent years. La gran familia española took audiences back to the summer of 2010, when Spain won the World Cup in South Africa. The film is directed by the acclaimed Daniel Sánchez-Arevalo and the story follows the adventures of a set of guests attending a wedding ceremony at the same time of the World Cup final.
A bit of love
The international actress and singer Leonor Watling visited the festival for the screening of The Food Guide to Love. A flick that opened up the audience’s appetite with a delicious romantic comedy about love, dreams and mistakes, with some spicy ingredients. And of course, Violet, a personal tale of serendipity that writer-director Luiso Berdejo crafted to be produced by his friend Dario Troiani. Violet stars Leticia Dolera and Junio Valverde. It tells the story of Alex, a young Spaniard living in California who falls in love with a girl he sees in a Polaroid picture. Berdejo, who is famous in Spain for his [REC] horror series screenplays, went from directing a Hollywood horror flick with Kevin Costner (The New Daughter) to this personal, sweet yet melancholic film set on the streets of Los Angeles.
The London Spanish Film Festival will be back in 2015 for its annual Spanish Spring Weekend.
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