Spanish Cinema Now. 11.

The Walter Reade Theater saw more genre-film excitement as the Spanish Cinema Now series drew to its close. Couple this with a narrative tale about environmental activism that quite literally prefigured the following day's top story in the New York Times, and you've got a knockout double bill.

"Coal Ash Spill Revives Issue of Its Hazards" read the Times headline for its Christmas Day front page story about how the Tennessee Valley Authority has played down the risks of what may be the nation's largest spill of coal ash, despite questions about its potential toxicity. The previous day, I'd watched a charming grandfatherly type with some interesting paternity issues (Celso Bugallo, who also played the grandfather in SCN's Pudor) go up against the powers that be: city fathers, a large corporation and even one of his own relatives over the toxic coal ash that's been falling for decades - contaminating everything from newborn cattle to produce, water, and the fertility of some of its male population - on his town of Valle Negrón.

In director/co-writer (with Ignacio del Moral and Dionisio Peréz) José Antonio Quirós's Ashes from the Sky (Cenizas del cielo), the environmental becomes political and personal. When his van breaks down mid-trip, a travel writer (Scotsman/Spaniard Gary Piquer) finds himself drawn - first out of need, then interest and finally desire - to a local family. Through this character, who acts as our surrogate, we learn all about the town, its people and problems. No one is demonized and yet the problem - a polluting power plant - is made clear, as are the various forces struggling for control of a situation that never should have occurred. Once in place, however, the plant has become almost impossible to subdue.

To their credit, the filmmakers understand the enormous frustration some of the locals (farmers in particular) feel and suggest alternatives ranging from the peaceful to the violent - without condoning the latter. They also understand how jobs (the plant is one of the area's major employers) figure into the mix. As with any good story, however, it's the characters who rule. There are even a couple of hot sex scenes (two of the actresses here are rather profoundly endowed), and a little male full frontal.

An unusual mix, Ashes from the Sky won an award for best environmental film at the 2008 Tokyo International Film Festival. In its relatively quiet manner, the movie offers at least tentative hope, while admitting the enormous difficulties at hand. It's the kind of film that, once seen, you will remember well but, due to our current economic climate and usual paucity of foreign fare, will probably not have the opportunity to see again. In short, it's another example - and a very good one - of why Spanish Cinema Now matters.

A movie that you may have the chance to see theatrically, or at least on DVD (the Weinstein Company has picked it up), King of the Hill (El Rey de la montaña) is also one of the most disturbing films in the "thriller" genre that I can recall. Because this year's SCN is rather heavy on genre films (thriller, horror, apocalypse, sci-fi - not to mention prison and terrorism), most of which seem to offer a massive dose of hopelessness, it is difficult not to take this as a comment on the Spanish (maybe European, maybe the whole of western culture) experience at the moment. If not, then coincidence is very heavily at play.

Directed and co-written (with Javier Gullón) by Gonzalo López-Gallego, this is the kind of film that demands to be seen before it is read about (and spoiled). It is bleak. Very bleak.

But because I want to write about it, I must warn you - Spoiler Ahead! - even though I will try to be as subtle as possible in my spoilage. King of the Hill is a "chase" movie that takes its title, appropriately enough, from an old and pretty well-known children's game. It is solidly in the tradition of recent dark European scare films such as Ils (and its crappier and uncredited American remake, The Strangers), Calvaire, À l'intérieur and Frontière(s) - though without anything like the gore quotient of the latter two. That it comes from Spain, the country that also gave us ¿Quién puede matar a un niño? is not, I think, coincidental. Finally, it is yet another variation on one of this genre's favorite - and seminal - film, The Most Dangerous Game.

Interestingly enough, King of the Hill made its debut well over a year ago at the 2007 Toronto film fest. That it has taken this long to "arrive" is, I think, both a tribute and a slap-in-the-face to the darkness at its center. Boasting a very small cast (I counted only seven speaking roles/visible faces), the film grabs you within a couple of minutes (via sex) and then again barely a couple of minutes later, with a bullet. By the finale, when our "hero" asks the question (really more of a plea) "What is this about?" be prepared to go begging. You'll learn something of the answer but not much. The rest will be left to your imagination - which is always more scary than any explanation. I put "hero" in quotes above because, by the end, you can barely use that term for the character played (as usual, very well) by Argentine actor Leonardo Sbaraglia, who lends the film his enormous sensual appeal, talent and willingness to take on all kinds of projects. María Val Verde compliments Sbaraglia well as his nemesis-turned-companion, and Pablo Menasanch, as the younger of two policemen, has the best moment of all. Wounded atop a rocky slope, his face contorted in terror and questioning, he mirrors perfectly what viewers and characters alike are in for from this dark, nasty and unforgettable little thriller.

Posted by dwhudson at December 26, 2008 6:37 AM