El apóstata (The Apostate) (2016 Feature Film)

Also in his first Spanish production, one can recognise the amiably ironic and occasionally absurd hand of the Uruguayan Veiroj (La vida útil/A Useful Life). A young man in Madrid (co-writer Alvaro Ogolla) wants to be struck from the lists of the Catholic Church. Alongside the problems that gives him, he wrestles with his family, life and love.

An (2016 Feature Film)

Sweet red-bean paste – an – out of a can or homemade, it makes all the difference. Not only in your dorayaki pancakes, but in your life. That’s what a mirthless dorayaki seller learns from an elderly female cook. Director Kawase also asks the viewer for attention to beauty. Because after all, what use is cherry blossom if you never look up?

Almacenados (Warehoused) (2016 Feature Film)

Mr Lino is going to retire and has to provide his young replacement Nin with a week’s on-the-job training. However, nothing ever seems to be done there, except clocking in, adhering to the rules set in stone and waiting until the trucks arrive to finally deliver some flagpoles. Absurdist comedy-drama about work mentality, societal roles and life as an employee and human.

Ali’s Boat (2016 Short Film)

When Sadik left Baghdad, his nephew Ali handed him an envelope and asked him not to open it until he reached his home in the Netherlands. In it there was a drawing of a boat.

Alba (2016 Feature Film)

One of the best moments of the new year, this moving debut from Ecuador. Alba, phenomenally acted by Macarena Arias, is a shy girl aged eleven who goes to live with her solitary father when her mother has to go to hospital. As if the fuss at school and approaching puberty weren’t complicated enough.

El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent) (2016 Feature Film)

Amazonia at the beginning of the 20th century. A time in which new territories are being mapped and local populations are oppressed. An unusual encounter takes place between two explorers and a shaman, who embark on a dangerous journey through the jungle together. Filmed in breath-taking black-and-white.

45 Years (2016 Feature Film)

Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay play the roles of their lives as a couple who end up in crisis immediately before their 45th wedding anniversary. An unexpected find reminds them of the past in a way that detracts from the ease of their current existence. As the party fast approaches, the spouses drift further apart.

3 Bellezas (2016 Feature Film)

Black(ish) comedy about the beauty cult in Venezuela where plastic surgery seems standard practice. When a mother’s obsession with beauty pageants goes too far, it causes a rift between her daughters. Who will become Miss República? And at what price?