If the skewed eye of the television news were to be believed, Spain is a land of empty and unfinished apartment developments and people queuing to withdraw their euros before the banks close down. Thank God, then, for the Spanish Film Festival, which returns to Canberra this week to remind us that it's also the land of fiery passion, wonderful art, beautiful women and talented filmmakers.
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The Festival has been programmed this year by acting festival director Genevieve Kelly, who is also responsible for the Italian and Israeli film festivals that help raise the cultural profile at Palace Cinemas.
Programming the festival gives her the chance to use the Spanish she learnt at home with a Peruvian mother.
''It's not perfect, but I get by,'' Kelly says.
She says when she's looking for a film for one of her festivals, she starts with engaging characters and a diversity of stories.
''The beauty of the Spanish Film Festival is that film is really strong across the globe where Spanish is spoken so the films aren't dominated by Spain and Spanish culture, but are a strong mix of cultural diversity.''
Her picks of this year's Festival include the Argentinian drama Clandestine Childhood (Infancia Clandestina, Saturday, June 22, 8.45pm) and the Spanish box-office hit comedy Carmina or Blow Up (Carmina o Revienta, Friday, June 21, 8.45pm).
Spanish filmmaker Paco Leon turns his real-life 58-year-old foul-mouthed mother, Carmina, into a star in this documentary-style comedy. Carmina runs a tavern in Seville, and the filmmaker pretty much just turns on the camera and allows her to tell her life story, which moves from outrageous to outrageously foul. Here, Carmina would probably be one of those offensive terry-towelling-wearing rogues being chased by the cameras of Today Tonight, but because this is Spain and that language just drips off her tongue (along with the tar from a carton of cigarettes), she's somehow adorable.
Clandestine Childhood is a little more sombre in tone, being the semi-autobiographical recounting of Argentinian filmmaker Benjamin Avila's childhood in 1970s Argentina where his parents have just moved the family under assumed names and with revolutionary plans to overthrow the ruling military dictatorship.
Those who enjoyed the Gael Garcia Bernal film No (the only film I've given five stars to this year) will enjoy watching the same political machinations played out against a different dynamic. In fact, while Avila sets his screenplay amid the political intrigue of the time, the heart of the film is the romance between its two young leads.
''Clandestine Childhood is just lovely,'' says Kelly who, like every good festival director, is quick to turn the conversation off herself and onto her films, reminding me that festival guest Maribel Verdu, whom many would remember as the lovely filling in the boys sandwich of Y Tu Mama Tambien though she had equally lovely if slightly less palpitating roles in Pan's Labyrinth and Belle Epoque, is coming to Canberra.
Verdu stars in two films in this year's festival, and audiences can see her on both screens on Friday, June 21.
In The End (Fin, Friday, June 21, 6.30pm), Verdu plays one of a group of friends reunited after 20 years apart, all sharing a dark secret that sees them picked off one by one in the tradition of the best thrillers. In addition to Verdu's star-power, The End is produced by the team behind The Impossible, which ought to pique the interest of a few cinephiles. Verdu will share stories about the film's production in an audience Q&A after the screening, while later in the evening she introduces 15 Years + 1 Day (15 Anos y Un Dia, Friday, June 21, 9pm) in which she plays the struggling mother of a wayward teenage son.
Canberra also receives a visit this year from Mexican director Natalia Beristain who comes to personally deliver her debut feature She Doesn't Want to Sleep Alone (No Quiero Dormir Sola, Saturday, June 22, 2pm).
Another largely autobiographical film based on the memories of her grandmother and her final years of struggle with dementia, Beristain told me that growing up in a theatrical family meant she was destined for a life in showbusiness.
''My father was in the theatre, my mother, my grandmother,'' Beristain explains over the phone from her Mexico City apartment.
''It might have been a crazy life to some people but it was normal childhood to me,'' she says.
In She Doesn't Want to Sleep Alone, Beristain directs her own father.
''He acted in one of my short films for university, so we'd already gotten over that awkwardness about whether I talk to him as an actor or a father and we could just talk about the work,'' she says.
Beristain chose Mexican telenovelas star Adriana Roel as her lead actress, and the more serious role has led to something of a resurgence in the career of the octogenarian thespian.
The rest of the program looks good on its own terms, even if they don't have glamorous actresses and directors to entice viewers.
The opening night film A Gun In Each Hand (Una Pistola En Cada Mano, Tuesday, June 18, 7pm) could be the blokey Iberian entry in the Paris, Je T'aime/New York, I Love You series, with six vignettes about men and their bumbling attempts to win, or win back, the women in their lives.
I wasn't sold on The Summer Side (Del Lado Del Verano, Saturday, June 22, 6.45pm), the kind of apartment-set Spanish comedy that makes you appreciate Australia's open skies, while Hold Up! (¡Atraco!, Sunday, June 23, 3.45pm) was lovely-looking, even if rather slow for a thriller, based on the real-life story of the bungled attempt to steal Evita Peron's jewels.
Of the films I haven't been able to preview beforehand, Dark Heaven (Cielo Oscuro, Monday, June 24, 6.30pm) looks interesting, a Peruvian remake of Claude Chabrol's L'enfer, and those who like their Spanish men on the caliente side might do worse than getting an eyeful of Mario Casas in I Want You (Tengo Ganas De Ti, Sunday, June 23, 8.15pm). Film lovers, meanwhile, will enjoy the chance to see Luis Bunuel's Tristana (Wednesday, June 26, 7pm) back on the big screen, with the gorgeous Catherine Deneuve.
The 2013 Spanish Film Festival is at Palace Electric from June 18 to 26. Tickets $19.50, $16.50 concessions. Five film multipass $75. Most sessions are rated R18+. For more information and tickets, see palacecinemas.com.au.