MANILA, Philippines - Instituto Cervantes and the Embassy of Colombia present the film cycle titled “Cine Colombiano,” a series of recent Colombian films. The movies will be screened on the Saturdays of September at the Instituto Cervantes, the cultural arm of the Embassy of Spain.
The cycle will kick-off on Sept. 5, with two screenings: the feature film Del amor y otros demonios (Of Love and Other Demons) at 2 p.m., and the documentary Gabo: la magia de lo real (Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) at 4 p.m.
Del amor y otros demonios, a film version of Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, is the unsettling story of 13-year-old girl called Sierva María and the dog bite that changes her life forever. Abandoned, displaced, in the midst of a sexual awakening and finally exorcised, Sierva María finds an unlikely ally in a young priest and together they discover passion. The movie was directed by Hilda Hidalgo in 2009.
Gabo: la magia de lo real (Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel García Márquez), directed by Justin Webster in 2015, is a gripping documentary about the 1982 Nobel Prize winner for Literature Gabriel García Márquez. The documentary follows the interwoven threads of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez’s life and work — with the narrative tension of an investigation.
On Sept. 12, the film cycle will show the movie Sofía y el terco (Sofia and the Stubborn Man), directed by Andrés Burgos in 2012. An old couple living in the Colombian countryside has been planning a trip to the sea for years in order to break the monotony of their life. He just wants to leave the routine; she wants to see the world and is not able to keep waiting.
The film cycle will continue on Sept. 19 with the showing of Cazando luciérnagas (Chasing Fireflies), a movie directed by Roberto Flores Prieto in 2013. It is about how affection can improve reality. Manrique is the man in charge of watching an abandoned salt mine located in a recondite place of the Colombian Caribbean. In his work he has found the perfect excuse to isolate himself from a world that doesn’t appeal to him anymore. Nevertheless, the appearance of a dog that likes to chase fireflies in the dark, and the unexpected arrival of Valeria, a 13-year-old daughter whose existence he ignored, will create for this solitary man an opportunity to recover the joy of being alive.
Directed by Óscar Ruiz Navia in 2013, the critically acclaimed Los hongos will conclude the film cycle on Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. The movie tells the story of two young men from Cali who want to become graffiti artists. Los hongos has enjoyed quite a success in film festivals worldwide, receiving the Special Jury Prize in the Locarno International Film Festival and the Dioraphte Award in the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
All films will be shown in their original version in Spanish with English subtitles. The screenings will take place at the Salón de Actos of Instituto Cervantes, 855 T.M. Kalaw, Ermita, Manila. Entrance is free on a first-come, first-served basis. For information, visit www.manila.cervantes.es and www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila, or call 526-1482.