Great Spanish Movies #1

'Mamacruz', 'The Echo', and 'In Her Place' are rightfully female focused.

'Mamacruz' (2023)

'Mamacruz' is an effective 70 minutes about a religious grandmother in her 70s discovering her libido, porn, feminism and friendship. That plot would've been slapstick in Hollywood's hands but these fingers were Venezuelan, and sticking themselves in Spain. As low key as dramedy can be, bittersweet and reflective. The ending glowed, my favourite final image of the year. Strong debut from Dir Patricia Ortega.

'The Echo' (2023)

'Prayers for the Stolen' was a highlight when I saw it in 2021, one of Latin America's finest. This time, Dir Tatiana Huezo, a Salvadoran based in Mexico, has made a rural child documentary about chauvinism and impoverishment. It's called 'The Echo'. It taught me. It moved me.

'In Her Place' (2024)

I previously stated that Chilean director Maite Alberdi's 'Eternal Memory' documentary is essential viewing, more important than all the awards he's won for his fiction. As its warmth is still in me, his latest, 'In Her Place' a.k.a. 'El lugar de la Otra', was a priority. It's a fiction superimposed on a true event where a female author shot her lover in a hotel lobby. That's the vehicle for an underappreciated mother, who works for the Judge handling the case, to seek her own space. It's an elegant movie I'm sure you will appreciate. Netflix has a dubbed version (but note that the trailer makes it falsely appear soapified).

View Great Spanish Movies #2.