From Magical Girls to Beatlemania: 4 Must-See Spanish Films in Chicago This Month

An action-packed thriller from Spanish director Daniel Monzón (Cell 211), the film follows title character and motorboat driver El Niño (Jesús Castro) who is hired by a Muslim drug dealer to become a mule and transport his illegal product via motorboat across the Strait of Gibraltar. On his heels is a veteran cop (Luis Tosar) who would like nothing more than to bring down El Niño or any other drug dealers, including El Inglés (Ian McShane), working on the Strait. Already critically-acclaimed in its home country, the film racked up 17 Goya Award nominations this year, including Best Film and Best Director.

Set in Spain in 1966, Spanish writer/director David Trueba’s comedy/drama, the title of which comes from a line from The Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever,” tells the story of Antonio (Javier Cámara), a high school English/Latin teacher who decides to go on a road trip to southeast Spain for a chance to meet his idol John Lennon. Along the way he picks up a pair of hitchhikers (Francesc Colomer and Natalia de Molina), both of whom are escaping from their past, and take them along for an adventure. In 2014, Living is Easy won six Goya Awards, including Best Film, Director, Actor, and Screenplay.

Spanish director Icíar Bollaín, who directed Gael García Bernal in the 2010 film Even the Rain, turns from narrative filmmaker into documentarian for this film about a group of young Spanish immigrants who must move to Edinburgh, Scotland because of the recession and the inability to find employment in their country. Among the workers is Gloria, a teacher from Spain who creates a collective called “Ni perdidos ni callados” (Not lost and not silenced) where her and her fellow Spaniards are able to voice their frustrations about having to move from their homeland because of the lack of opportunities in the work force.

Unemployed schoolteacher Luis (Luis Bermejo) will do anything to fulfill the wish of his dying daughter Alicia (Lucia Pollan) and buy her an expensive dress inspired by her favorite Japanese anime series. When he turns to blackmail to get the money, his life and the life of a mentally ill woman (Bárbara Lennie) he cons are thrown into disrepair. This is director Calros Vermut’s follow-up to his 2011 cult Spanish film Diamond Flash, which also tells the story of a desperate parent. The film was nominated for six Goya Awards this year, earning one for Best Actress (Lennie). Director Pedro Almodóvar praised Vermut’s work as “la gran revelación del cine español en lo que va de siglo.”