2008 Film Synopses
638 Ways to Kill Castro (2006), Documentary, 76 min
This film looks at the incredible story of the 638 alleged plots by the CIA and Cuban exiles to kill the Cuban leader Fidel Castro. It reveals every conceivable method of assassination from exploding cigars to femme fatales, a radio station rigged with noxious gas to a poison syringe posing as an innocuous ballpoint pen. John F Kennedy even asked Bond-creator Ian Fleming for his advice on how to oust Castro.
XXY (2007), Drama, 86 min (Spanish)
Alex is a 15-year-old teenager with a dark secret. Soon after her birth, her parents decide to leave Buenos Aires to settle in an isolated wooden house tucked away in the dunes of the Uruguayan shoreline. Then, a couple of friends from Buenos Aires come for a visit with their 16-year-old son Álvaro. Álvaro’s father is a plastic surgeon who accepted the invitation because of his medical concern for Alex. This is a compelling coming of age story where a young adult must decide whether they want to spend the rest of their lives as a female or a male.
La Pluma Del Arcangel (2002), 92 min (Spanish)
A small village notes the passing of the town telegraph operator. Gabriel Vilano appears from nowhere and lets people know that he is the new operator. Gabriel is shown the ropes by Lazarillo who explains that two neverseen leaders ("The Governer" and "The Supreme Chief") control the town. Gabriel attempts to right some of the town's wrongs.
De Nadie (2005), Documentary, 80 min (Spanish)
The impoverished Central Americans who leave their countries in hopes of a better life in the United States have a rough road ahead of them. De Nadie shows how, during their perilous 2500-mile journey through Mexico, they put their last money, dignity, health and life on the line. Apart from the Mexican immigration service and police, the illegal aliens are threatened by the security service of the railroad companies, the criminal La Mara Salvatrucha gang and the train itself.
Apago y Vamonos/Switch Off (2005), Documenatary
The Pehuenche-Mapuche people live above the Bíobío River, in Ralco valley, Chile. For over four centuries they have fought off all invaders who tried to enter the valley, from the Incas to the Spanish conquistadors. In 2004, amongst the scenic beauty of the Chilean Andes, Spain's largest hydroelectric company, Endesa, constructed the world's third largest dam. This dam flooded the Ralco valley and forced the "exchange" of whole villages to much higher ground. Despite protections for indigenous people enshrined in the Chilean constitution, the government has shown little inclination to enforce their rights against the wealthy Spanish multinational.
Erendira (2007), Adventure, Drama, 117 min, (Purépecha / Spanish / Latin)
ERENDIRA IKIKUNARI is a beautifully shot action film that recreates the 16th century legend of Eréndira, a young Purépecha woman who became an icon of bravery during the destruction of indigenous Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors. Eréndira, a young Purépecha women on verge of marriage, refuses to allow her land to be destroyed and stands up to the social conventions prohibiting women to participate in battle. This feature length film was shot entirely in the original Purépecha language.
El Violin (2007), Drama, 98 min, Black and White (Spanish)
Mexican director Francisco Vargas Quevedo presents the story of Don Plutarco, an elderly farmer and violinist; the aged patriarch of a musical family who has fashioned an ingenious way of smuggling ammunition beneath the noses of government troops. Shot simply and starkly in Black & White this mood-driven character exploration of familial love, duty, conflict and innocence is set in rural Mexico during the peasant revolts of the 1970s.
Pixote: A Lei Do Mas Fraco (1981), Drama, 128 min, (Portuguese)
"Pixote" concerns the (mis)adventures of the eponymous hero, a pre-adolescent boy in urban Brazil, abandoned by his parents, who first endures the horrors of a youth prison, and then those of life on the street. It is particulary effective when it develops other characters as they are seen by Pixote, especially those of the streetwise transvestite homosexual Lilica and the aging alcoholic prostitute Sueli, who become surrogate parents to the young boy in a kind of improvised family whose economy is based on mugging Sueli's clients.
A Casa de Alice (2007), Drama, 92 min, (Portuguese / English)
Alice is in her forties and works as a manicurist in a beauty salon. She lives in a neighborhood in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, sharing an apartment with her mother, Dona Jacira; her husband, Lindomar, a taxi-driver; and their three sons, Lucas, Edinho, and Junior. After 20 years of marriage, neither Lindomar nor Alice expects much in the way of reconciliation. The taxi-driver saves his sexual impulses for the affairs that he maintains, with a preference for teenage girls. Alice pretends not to acknowledge her husband's infidelities. Enter Nilson, Alice's old boyfriend from adolescence. Alice sees in him the possibility to realize her romantic dreams, changing the course of her love life and finances. Once more she creates illusions that will lead her to nothing.
2007 FILM SYNOPSES
2006 FILM SYNOPSES