!Viva! Spanish & Latin American Film Festival comes to QUAD, Derby in April

QUAD is Derby will be welcoming a Spanish & Latin American Film Festival in April. ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Film Festival, which originates in Manchester, includes new cinema from Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America. This years’ festival celebrates women in global cinema. The tour includes a specially curated selection of seven films from the festival which screen in QUAD from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st April. All the films will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles.

Memorias De Un Hombre En Pijama is an autobiographical story in a combination of 2D animation & live-action. Paco, a 40-something bachelor from Barcelona, finally sees his childhood dream come true: a job working from home in his pyjamas. Just when he’s reached the zenith of personal happiness, however, he falls in love with a woman who’s not convinced that this shouldn’t be his main objective in life….. A delightful ‘coming-of-age’ comedy. Memorias De Un Hombre En Pijama (Memories of A Man In Pyjamas) (12A) screens at QUAD on Friday 19th April at 6:30pm.

Quién Te Cantará is an enigmatic hall of mirrors featuring a singer and her talented fan; an amnesiac superstar and her devoted assistant; a doting mother and her bullying daughter. An ‘accident’ leaves fame-weary Lila with acute memory loss, and super-fan Violeta’s remarkable karaoke performance suggests an unusual solution – Violeta can teach Lila to be Lila again. With great music, witty dialogue, dark emotions and high drama as the sophisticated plot unfurls, the film was voted Best Film by the critics at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Quién Te Cantará (12A) screens at QUAD on Friday 19th April at 8:30pm.

Miriam Miente is a coming-of-age story set in the Dominican Republic with a theme of class conflict. In this conflict whiteness is aligned with higher status, something which mixed race teenager Miriam cannot fail to see, not least in the attitude of her own mother. As Miriam and her friend Jennifer prepare for the their joint 15th birthday party extravaganza, panic sets in when she realises the date she’s met online is in fact black. It’s tragic to witness the corrosive effects on all concerned of this endemic and internalised racism in this topical exploration of identity politics. Miriam Miente (12A) screens at QUAD on Saturday 20th April at 6:30pm.

Petra is a portrait of a broken family suffering the consequences of secrets, lies and violence. Petra, a fatherless young woman, embarks on a search that leads her to Jaume, a famous artist and a powerful, ruthless man. Petra’s story entwines with the lives of Jaume, his wife and their son, and step-by-step their fates are sealed. Shot on location near Madrid and Girona, capturing the beautiful rural scenery in this dark, witty melodrama. Petra (15) screens at QUAD on Saturday 20th April at 8:30pm.

Jean-François I El Sentit De La Vida is a witty and whimsical take on the growing pains of adolescence in a coming-of-age tale. Young teenager Francesc – a solitary boy with an eye patch and a psychiatrist – is natural prey for school bullies, until he finds a novel escape in the form of French existentialist philosophy. With deep commitment to the ideas of Albert Camus, he resolves to make a pilgrimage from Catalonia to Paris. En route he meets Lluna, an older girl who becomes his surprising travel companion. Jean-François I El Sentit De La Vida (12A) (Jean-François And The Meaning Of Life) screens at QUAD on Sunday 21st April at 4:10pm.

Ana de Día is a thrilling journey into the personal liberation of a woman who is unexpectedly expelled from her comfortable but unfulfilling life when a mysterious doppelgänger takes her place. Including echoes of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch, an uncanny atmosphere pervades the film as Ana abandons her fiancé and career, and embraces an alternative version of herself, complete with a job in a seedy cabaret. From this new position in society, Ana seems both vulnerable and empowered. Ana de Día (15) screens at QUAD on Sunday 21st April at 6:20pm.

Alanis is a well-told tale of the life of a young mother working in Buenos Aires. Winner of Best Director and Best Actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the film portrays a proud young woman doing her best for her infant son, with the beautifully naturalistic performance enhanced by the real-life mother-son relationship. Working conditions sometimes force Alanis into difficult and dangerous scenarios, but she is cast neither as a victim nor a weak woman set in a country where prostitution is legal but brothels are not. Alanis (18) screens at QUAD on Sunday 21st April at 8:45pm.

Individual film tickets are priced at £9.50 or £7 Concessions, a weekend pass enabling entrance to all seven films is priced at £40 or £35 Concessions. For more information and to book tickets please call QUAD Box office on (01332) 290606.