Spanish Contemporary Films to Screen for Free in ‘New Cinephilias Online’

MANILA, Philippines — Four Spanish contemporary films will be screened for free in Instituto Cervantes de Manila’s film series “New Cinephilias Online” in November.

The film series begins Nov. 6 and 7 with the thriller “Arima.” It centers around four women and a girl who, upon the arrival of two strangers, see how their environment becomes unbalanced and how fear and desire emerge. It will be available on demand for 48 hours until Nov. 8 at 3 a.m.

“New Cinephilias Online” continues Nov. 13 and 14 with the comedy film “Violeta no coge el ascensor.” It follows Violeta, in her early twenties, as she spends the summer in Madrid doing an internship at a publishing house. Violeta makes new friends and some good and bad decisions, too. Then she learns that “failure is more of an art than a drama.” The movie will be accessible only on the aforementioned dates.

Next up is the documentary film “This Film is About Me,” which will be screened Nov. 20 and 21. Per the news release, the said film portrays Renata Felicitas Soskey, a movie star tailor-made for the film that Alexis Delgado imagines, the Gloria Swanson of her particular Sunset Boulevard — though not quite in the “decadent” Californian mansion chosen by Billy Wilder in 1950 — but in the Galician jail where Renata is serving a sentence for the brutal murder of her neighbor. It will be accessible Nov. 20 and 21.

“La reina de los lagartos” concludes the film series Nov. 27 and 28. The comedy film is about Berta, a single mother, young and determined, who experiences a summer romance with Javi, a peculiar man passing through her life and that of her daughter.

The films will be shown through Instituto Cervantes’ channel on Vimeo and will be freely accessible for 48 hours from their start date and time. They will be in Spanish with English subtitles.

“New Cinephilias Online” is presented by Instituto Cervantes de Manila in collaboration with the Seville European Film Festival and the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines.