The schedule for the weekend will be posted October 1, when Spain’s official selection for the 2012 Foreign-Language Film Oscar is announced. Please check our website for details. October 14, 2011

Friday, October 14 – Sunday, October 16
The schedule for the weekend will be posted October 1, when Spain’s official selection for the 2012 Foreign-Language Film Oscar is announced. Please check our website for details. The selection includes the following films (plus a few surprises!):

COUSINHOOD (PRIMOS), 2011, 98 min. When Diego (Quim Gutierrez) is jilted at the altar, his cousins, playboy Julian (Raul Arevalo) and depressed, eyepatch-wearing Miguel (Adrian Lastra), convince him to join them on a trip to northern coastal Spain, where they think Diego can re-ignite the spark with ex-girlfriend Martina (Inma Cuesta). Upon arrival at Martina's pueblo, Diego finds his old flame now to be a single mother, complicating the mens' plans for a swift, simple reunion. A very funny and surprisingly edgy comedy about male insecurity and weakness (the Spanish title PRIMOS niftily translates as both "Cousins" and "Suckers") from filmmaker Daniel Sanchez Arevalo. In Spanish with English subtitles.
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DON'T BE AFRAID (NO TENGAS MIEDO), 2011, 90 min. An authentically disturbing sequence early in director Montxo Armendariz's haunting drama about the long-term effects of child abuse arrestingly sets the tone for a thoughtful tale following Silvia (an excellent Michelle Jenner) through life as she copes with a traumatic childhood relationship with her father. Belen Rueda is equally excellent as Silvia's mother, who refuses to see the damage occuring in her own home, and blames her daughter for the rising household tensions. With Cristina Plazas as Silvia's psychologist. Official selection of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2011. In Spanish with English subtitles.
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Website http://www.notengasmiedolapelicula.com/

NEON FLESH (CARNE DE NEON), 2010, 109 min. An expansion of director Paco Cabezas' 2005 short of the same name, this excitingly brash, fantastically flashy crime comedy follows Barcelona street kid Ricky (Spanish star Mario Casas) who is eking out a touch-and-go living selling tissues, in the hopes of saving enough money to open a brothel for his incarcerated prostitute mother. Though he gets help from the cruelly hilarious pimp Angelito (Vicente Romero) and his junkie girlfriend (Macarena Gomez), Ricky is treading on dangerous ground with his plan - the prospective brothel would be encroaching on the territory of nasty neighborhood villain El Chino. "Well-crafted, high-testosterone entertainment." –Variety In Spanish with English subtitles.
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ANYTHING YOU WANT (TODO LO QUE TU QUIERAS), 2010, 101 min. Recently widowed Leo (Juan Diego Botto) finds himself leading a dazed and lonely life with his 4-year-old daughter. After frequent requests from the toddler for a "fake mother," and Leo's date with an ex-girlfriend to a transvestite cabaret, the newly single father begins toying with - and committing to - the idea of cross-dressing. A striking drama from filmmaker Achero Manas that subversively examines parental gender roles and issues of complex masculine identity. Official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival 2010 and the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2011. In Spanish with English subtitles.
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BLACK BREAD (PA NEGRE), 2010, 108 min. In Spain in 1944, 11-year-old Andreu (Francesc Colomer) witnesses the brutal murder of a man and his son in a forested ravine, and quickly runs home to tell his mother, Florencia (Nora Navas). Andreu soon thereafter is sent to live with his extended family in the countryside, where he befriends his jaded cousin Nuria (Marina Comas) who has lost her fingers to a grenade, and a consumptive boy who imagines he has angel wings. Loosely based on Charles Dickens' Great Expectations with the bleak fantastical soul of PAN'S LABYRINTH, subversive filmmaker Agusti Villaronga's harrowing and richly textured depiction of Spanish rural life during wartime is both challenging and rewarding. Winner of a whopping nine Goya Awards, including Best Film, Director, Actress (Navas), New Actor (Colomer), New Actress (Comas) and Supporting Actress (Laia Marull). "Dark to its heart and breathlessly watchable." -Variety In Spanish with English subtitles.
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Official Website: http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/egyptian_theatre_events