As the UK’s biggest celebration of new Spanish and Latin American cinema, HOME’s ¡Viva! Festival has been a key event in Manchester’s cultural calendar
for over two decades. The much loved festival returns this March for its 26th year, with a specially selected programme of the most exciting work from across the Spanish-speaking world.
The festival opens on Friday 6 March with La Hija de un ladrón (A Thief’s Daughter), set in Barcelona, a powerful first feature which draws comparisons with the work of Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers. Fresh from her Goya Award as Best New Director, Catalan filmmaker Belén Funes will be here on the Opening Night to introduce her film and chat with festival-goers in the bar afterwards, plus she’ll also be here to answer audience questions in the post- screening Q&A on Saturday 7 March.
The opening weekend continues with the return of some familiar names and faces, including Mientras dure la guerra (While at War), a big-budget historical drama set in 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, from Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar, best known for writing and directing The Others and The Sea Inside; and La Odisea de los giles (Heroic Losers), a feel-good comedy set during the 2001 financial crash in Argentina, from the prodigious Argentinian actor Ricardo Darín, who has surely featured somewhere in almost every ¡Viva! festival line-up.
In addition to the opening night guest director, we also welcome five other filmmakers to Manchester in March, three of whom are also first-time filmmakers. From Spain, Gabriel Velázquez returns to Manchester 13 years after his first visit to the festival with his folkloric, musical documentary Zaniki, and debut director Oriol Puig presents his Catalan coming-of-age story El Sitio de Otto.
From Costa Rica we welcome Antonella Sudasassi and her first feature film El Despertar de las hormigas, which celebrates female empowerment as a put- upon housewife wakes up to her own dreams and desires. And finally, two Mexican directors will be coming to ¡Viva! – indigenous filmmaker Itandehui Jansen with her family drama Tiempo de lluvia, partly filmed in the Mixtec language, and David Romay with his fiction feature debut Detrás de la montaña, a surprisingly tender drama set in Ciudad Juárez, following a bereaved teenager bent on revenge against his father.
There will also be a number of talks and workshops, including the return of the Café Cervantes and the Language Lab, both popular with those learning Spanish, and a One-Hour Intro to Latin American Indigenous Filmmakers, delivered by Mexican director Itandehui Jansen and writer Armando Bautista. The focus on indigenous filmmakers runs throughout the calendar of screenings,
including the heart-breaking drama Wiñaypacha, filmed in the Aymara language and set high in the Peruvian Andes, starring the filmmaker’s own grandfather in the one of the two leading roles. We also present the UK premiere of Mexican documentary Tote abuelo, filmed in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, and a digitally restored 1982 documentary from Colombia, Nuestra voz de tierra, memoria y futura, which used a Marxist aesthetic to depict centuries of oppression and resistance of farmers and indigenous peoples.
The ¡Viva! film programme is curated by Rachel Hayward, Head of Film; Jessie Gibbs, ¡Viva! Festival Coordinator; and Andy Willis, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford and HOME’s Senior Visiting Curator: Film.
Rachel Hayward comments: “Our ¡Viva! festival has been an integral part of the HOME programme since 2015, and prior to that at Cornerhouse for a quarter of a century, and our continued commitment to the festival is a demonstration that our links with Spain and the Spanish-speaking world are as strong as ever.”
Jessie Gibbs comments: “Planning our annual ¡Viva! festival is almost a year- round task, and this year, with the number of premieres and director visits lined up, has been one of the most enjoyable to programme. I cannot wait for the festivities to get under way. This year’s programme is as varied as any in the festival’s history, and we look forward to welcoming visitors old and new to our screenings and events.”
Tickets are on sale to HOME Friends Thu 6 Feb, 12:00; HOME Members Fri 7 Feb, 12:00; and on general sale Mon 10 Feb, 12:00,
To book tickets please visit www.homemcr.org or call box office on +44 (0) 161 200 1500.
All films will begin at the advertised time with no adverts or trailers; all films are in Spanish with English subtitles unless otherwise noted; and all age certifications are local to Manchester City Council and subject to confirmation.
