El cine español - dónde está?

These days, the only Spanish films that British and American viewers are likely to be able to see are horror flicks or the latest Almodóvar. (The latter, I'm pleased to report, is currently preparing a new movie with Antonio Banderas entitled La piel que habito.) It wasn't always so: up to the late 1990s, films by Carlos Saura, Bigas Luna and Julio Medem were regularly released in the UK, while the presence of Almodóvar-associated actors (Carmen Maura, Victoria Abril) was enough to get a film some limited screenings. But as distribution policies have grown more cautious and conservative in the last ten years, it's been harder to see work by Spanish filmmakers outside of Spain. Returning from Ibiza with my usual load of cinema magazines (God bless you, Fotogramas!) I was delighted to read about the interesting new work being made in Spain - and frustrated that so little of it is likely to see the light of day over here. Vicente Molina Foix's El dios de madera (with Marisa Paredes, above), Sebastian Cordero's Rabia, and Sigfrid Monleon's biographical drama El cónsul de Sodoma (with Jordi Mollà, below) are just a selection of the movies that deserve some international exposure. Here's hoping that these films turn up on some festival programmes at the very least. [http://www.fotogramas.es/]