Once again we have a vibrant selection of films from Latin America; inc. the Cannes award winning Argentinean film ‘XXY’, the Mexican award winning film ‘To the Other Side’, and the Cuban award winning film ‘Barrio Cuba’.

This year we celebrate the 80th birthday of the distinguished Latin American novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the 25th anniversary since he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The festival has rescued two films based upon his novels: ‘No One Writes to the Colonel’ and ‘Erendira’, the second of the two scripted by Garcia Marquez himself.

Both films will be screened on 18th October followed by a talk by Edwin Ostos, Cultural Attache, Embassy of Colombia in London.

For the 2nd time the festival will award the ‘Love Spoon Award’ to the best film by viewers choice. The festival aims to promote films from Latin America and gain interest from film distributors and television channels in the UK. We also strive to raise awareness of the richness & diversity of Latin American culture through film.

Sergio Leon, Director

Director: Gustavo Loza
Country: Mexico
Year: 2004

Visually stimulating, hauntingly timely film punctures the surface of immigration with a distinctive and unconventional storytelling style. Three countries, three cultures, three different realities serve as background for the stories of three children with absent fathers.

Director: Rhodri Glyn Davies
Country: Wales
Year: 2006

In the autumn of 2006, with a crew from Wales, Fflic set out for Patagonia to discover whether there was anything intrinsically Welsh about the homes built by the first Welsh settlers in the late 19th century. What we found were untouched Welsh cottages, traditional farmsteads and chapels built to reflect the architecture of the homeland. The programmes capture the ‘old Welsh way of living’ but unmistakably ‘Argentinian style’.

Director: Jose Joffily
Country: Brazil
Year: 2006

Ex-cop Vieira (Antonio Fagundes) is involved in the death of his lover (Zeze Polessa), a prostitute who works in the streets of Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. After her death, some strange things started to happen and Vieira is harassed at the same time by the police and some old bad guys from his past. Meanwhile, he is seriously involved with a young and pretty prostitute named Flor.

Director: Gustavo Loza
Country: Mexico
Year: 2004

Visually stimulating, hauntingly timely film punctures the surface of immigration with a distinctive and unconventional storytelling style. Three countries, three cultures, three different realities serve as background for the stories of three children with absent fathers.

Director: Ruy Guerra
Country: Mexico
Year: 1983

This film was scripted by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, based on a novel he wrote called Innocent Erendira.

Erendira accidentally burns her grandmother's house down, so Grandmother prostitutes her for repayment. A young man falls madly in love with Erendira, who has something magical about her that makes men line up for days just to spend a few minutes with her. He eventually decides that the only way to save Erendira is to kill Grandmother - not as easy as it seems.

Director: Sebastian Moreno
Country: Chile
Year: 2006

During Augusto Pinochet's regime in the 1980s a small group of independent photographers took to the streets and documented the atrocities, the violence, the riots and fighting that was going on around them in Santiago, Chile. While Pinochet's army had guns, the photographers used their cameras as weapons. The act of taking a photograph became an expression of freedom. When they were published in Chile and by foreign media the photographers' shocking images of terror became their contribution to revolution.

Director: Marcela Said
Country: Chile
Year: 2006

Opus Dei is a film that penetrates one of the most secretive and fundamentalist groups of the Catholic Church. A journey that reveals the insidious mechanism and hidden intentions of a discreet group of apostles whose job is to "santify the world".

Director: Arturo Ripstain
Country: Mexico
Year: 1999

The Colonel waits. They promised him a pension, which for years has remained a promise unfulfilled. Every Friday, solemn and dressed in his finest suit, the Colonel waits by the dock in anticipation of the letter announcing the arrival of his pension. Everyone in the small town knows that he waits in vain. He knows it too. And every Friday, his wife watches him at the mirror dressing and preparing to pick up the letter which for years has eluded him.

Director: Sergio Arau
Country: Mexico
Year: 2006

California awakens one day to discover that one third of its population has vanished. A peculiar pink fog surrounds the state and communication outside its boundaries has completely shut down. As the day progresses, it becomes apparent that the sole characteristic linking the missing 14 million is their Hispanic heritage.

Director: Humberto Solas
Country: Cuba
Year: 2005

The second part of a planned trilogy from revolutionary Cuban filmmaker Humberto Solás (Honey for Oshun), BARRIO CUBA strips away the sheen of a country often glamorized by tourist stereotypes, instead paying tribute to the authentic slums of the Havana suburbs. Despite the heavy dramatic threads of storyline, Solás creates a series of endings that cast a hint of mysticism, while still conveying a message of hope for a brighter future for both the characters and audience.

Director: Sergio Arau
Country: Mexico
Year: 2006

California awakens one day to discover that one third of its population has vanished. A peculiar pink fog surrounds the state and communication outside its boundaries has completely shut down. As the day progresses, it becomes apparent that the sole characteristic linking the missing 14 million is their Hispanic heritage.

Director: Lucia Puenzo
Country: Argentina
Year: 2007

Winner of the Cannes International Critics Week Grand Prize, an assured, beautiful debut from Argentinian writer/director Lucia Puenzo.

Alex lives with her parents, whose reaction to her indeterminate gender has been to exile the family to a small island. As she comes of age, her parents feel it is time for them to decide if she is to be a woman or a man. Ricardo Darin (Nine Queens, Kamchatka) delivers another brilliant performance as the father.

Director: Alejandro Rojas
Country: Chile
Year: 2002

Young Mampato takes an interest in the culture of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) after his father returns from a trip with some small relics. While perusing the Internet to learn more about the island's culture, Mampato finds himself sucked into a time warp that lands him in the middle of ancient Rapa Nui. The lad finds himself embroiled in a struggle to free the oppressed population of the island from a tyrannical ruler while learning firsthand about the culture and history of the island.

Director: Humberto Solas
Country: Cuba
Year: 2005

The second part of a planned trilogy from revolutionary Cuban filmmaker Humberto Solás (Honey for Oshun), BARRIO CUBA strips away the sheen of a country often glamorized by tourist stereotypes, instead paying tribute to the authentic slums of the Havana suburbs. Despite the heavy dramatic threads of storyline, Solás creates a series of endings that cast a hint of mysticism, while still conveying a message of hope for a brighter future for both the characters and audience.

Director: Paulo Betti
Country: Brazil
Year: 2006

The true story of João de Camargo, who was born into slavery in 1858, but rose from poverty to become a respected though controversial spiritual leader who angered the nation's political powers as well as the leaders of Brazil's Catholic Church.

Director: Ulises Rossell
Country: Argentina
Year: 2006

A separated yet self-sufficient craftswoman puts up a friend who is also separating. The hostess has three teenage children, and the arrival of her guest will interfere with their domestic harmony, apart from slowly but surely causing a hormonal surge in one of the boys.

Director: Jose Joffily
Country: Brazil
Year: 2006

Ex-cop Vieira (Antonio Fagundes) is involved in the death of his lover (Zeze Polessa), a prostitute who works in the streets of Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. After her death, some strange things started to happen and Vieira is harassed at the same time by the police and some old bad guys from his past. Meanwhile, he is seriously involved with a young and pretty prostitute named Flor.