Ibero American Film Festival | Lafayette College 2023

Ibero American Film Festival at Lafayette College
September 13-October 11, 2023
Every Wednesday at 6pm
Landis Cinema, William C. Buck Hall (Williams Arts Campus)

1) Parallel Mothers (2021) / Pedro Almodóvar / Spain / 123 mins
September 13- 6:00 PM
Pre-screening snacks starting at 5:30 PM in Landis Cinema lobby

Starring Penélope Cruz in what could be the best performance of her career, Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers is an unabashed story of cascading twists and turns, thickening complications, and high family drama.

The film follows two mothers who meet at the hospital ward during their pregnancy, and whose lives become intertwined from then on. Janis (Penélope Cruz), middle-aged, doesn’t regret her accidental pregnancy and she is exultant. The other, Ana (Milena Smit), an adolescent, is scared, repentant, and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in those hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and becomes complicated, changing their lives in a decisive way.

In one of his best films to date, Almodóvar revisits the legacy of his country’s political violence during the Spanish Civil War to provide a broader and richer perspective on the exploration of one’s ancestry.

2) This Stolen Country of Mine (2022) /Marc Wiese/ Germany, Ecuador/ 93 mins
September 20 – 6:00 PM

Chinese mining in Ecuador’s mountains sets the stage for an epic battle between eco-guerrillas and a corrupt government in an intensely dramatic documentary.

This Stolen Country of Mine follows Paúl Jarrín Mosquera, who leads the indigenous resistance against the exploitation of their land. Meanwhile, China uses the Ecuadorian government to turn the country into one of its new colonies, having made the country dependent on credit through a series of corrupt and greedy treaties. When journalist Fernando Villavicencio exposes these plots and gets access to the contracts between China and Ecuador, the government wants him silenced too. Both men are fighting for freedom in this battle against a superpower.

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Marc Wiese, the film exposes China’s massive hunger for natural resources and how during the last decade it has been aggressively operating to obtain access to these resources in Ecuador. The country is now stuck with the most Chinese debts in Latin America.

3) Seven Dogs (2021) / Rodrigo Guerrero / Argentina / 87 mins
September 27- 6:00 PM

A canine family becomes the catalyst for human connection in this heartwarming film about a lonely man looking for a way to keep his seven dogs in his apartment despite the neighbors’ threats.

Ernesto lives with his seven dogs in an apartment building in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. His lonely daily routine revolves around his pets’ needs, his health problems, and his money problems. Tired of the constant barking, some of his neighbors arrange a mediation hearing, urging him to take his pets out of the apartment. But Ernesto cannot envision a life without his dogs, and he cannot afford to move elsewhere.

Thanks to the empathy of people who are also lonely, but share common spaces that connect them, Ernesto finds a way to solve the conflict.

Seven Dogs is a simple and bright film on prejudice, finger-pointing, and social harassment.

4) Memories of my Father (2022) / Fernando Trueba / Colombia / 136 mins
October 4- 6:00 PM

Based on the legendary book Oblivion: A Memoir by the Colombian writer Héctor Abad Faciolince, and directed by Academy Award winning director Fernando Trueba (Belle Époque), the film tells of the life of the prominent doctor and human rights activist, Héctor Abad Gómez (Javier Cámara), a father who is concerned about both his children and children from less favored classes.

After a devastating loss in the family, Héctor gives himself to the greater cause of public health programs for the poor in Medellín to the consternation of the city’s authorities. The film straddles two eras: Faciolince’s adolescence in Medellín in the 1970s, and his young adulthood in the ’80s up until 1987 when his father was assassinated.

5) A Film About Couples (2021) / Natalia Cabral, Oriol Estrada / República Dominicana / 89 mins
October 11 – 6:00 PM

Directed by Miriam Lies’ award-winning team, Natalia Cabral y Oriol Estrada, A Film About Couples is equal parts a candid exposition of the cinematic industry and a joyful exploration of marriage.

Natalia and Oriol are a couple of filmmakers in their thirties who have a little daughter named Lia. One day, they receive an offer to direct a documentary and they decide to make a film about couples in love. Natalia and Oriol interview many couples, always wanting to know how they get along and what their most typical problems are. But as filming progresses, wounds from their own relationship begin to open up, fights and doubts seem to be endless. But finishing the film will be their opportunity to reformulate their love for each other and their love for cinema.