On April 23, we celebrate the Spanish Language Day. It was established as a tribute to Miguel de Cervantes, creator of, inter alia, the novels of Przemyślny nobleman Don Quixote from Mancza . To celebrate this day, we have prepared for you a list of the most interesting, in our opinion, Spanish-language productions. Perhaps you will choose something for yourself among them!
Faun’s maze
Of course, this list could not be complete without the Faun’s Labyrinth, honored with three Oscars, from the directing workshop of Guillermo del Toro. This dreamlike and timeless horror movie is not only a journey into children’s phantasmagoria, but also into human desires and demons. At the same time, subtle and terrifyingly beautiful in its execution, the picture combines the best of a historical story and horror. In addition, a great script, plot and make-up that stays in your memory for good. Del Toro’s film is a must-see not only for lovers of the director’s film achievements, but also for those who sympathize with broadly understood fantasy.
Orphanage
The Orphanage is the full-length debut of Juan Antonio Bayron, which echoed widely on the stage of not only Spanish but also world horror films. This is evidenced by the total number of awards and nominations he has received during various film festivals. It was this picture that opened the door to a greater directing career for the artist. The film itself, as befits Spanish productions – dark, atmospheric, captivating and moving. Such a set of feelings ensures deep experiences during the screening – Marcin Panuś
REC
The action of the 2007 Spanish horror film REC takes place in Barcelona. We follow the reporter Angela Vidal, who, together with the camera operator Pablo, is in the process of implementing a program for the fire brigade. Together with them, he goes on a night rescue operation, during which inexplicable things happen. The maddened inhabitants of one of the tenement houses attack both defenseless people and policemen. It turns out that there is a virus in the building that revives even shot people. So we are dealing with a story about a kind of zombie, but realized in the style of found footage , i.e. a technique stylized as an amateur recording. This is an extremely interesting approach to the subject that should interest all fans of the living dead.
Julia’s eyes
If you are looking for an interesting and suspenseful thriller, it is definitely worth reaching for Julia’s Eyes directed by Guillem Morales. The title character loses her sister, Sarah, who is suffering from a chronic disease. Initially, her death is considered a suicide. However, Julia refuses to believe it and begins her own investigation. She begins to have visions and slowly discover the terrifying truth. The heroine’s eyesight may turn out to be the price to discover the whole secret.
Platform
Platform is a science-fiction thriller that was made for the Netflix platform in 2019. It tells about a multi-level prison where people have been imprisoned. Every day, food descends on the platform, and inmates have a few moments to eat as much as possible. Unfortunately, usually no scraps are left on the lower floors. Hungry and determined prisoners are capable of the cruelest deeds just to stay alive – Piotr Markiewicz
The Ministry of Time
Ministry of Timeit is an autonomous and secret governmental institution that reports directly to the Presidium of the Government and that only kings, presidents and a few important people know about. The passage to other times is through the gates guarded by the Ministry’s patrols. Its purpose: to detect and prevent an intruder from the past from reaching our present – or vice versa – in order to use history to his advantage. To do this, Patrols will have to travel back into the past and prevent them from reaching it. Our heroes are not superheroes, but ordinary people exposed to unusual situations. Julián, nurse, Amelia Folch, Barcelona’s first university woman from 1880, and Alonso de Entrerríos, soldier of Tercios de Flandes. Their mission: to fight lest the past change, which would mean our present is not what it is. To do this, they have to fight merchants and organizations that want to manipulate him for the benefit of themselves or of foreign powers. The Ministry is the last barrier to keeping our history what it is, with its greatness and sorrows.
the protected
Mario, a shy and affectionate widower, to his bewilderment, discovers that his only son Carlitos has the amazing ability to move objects with his mind. Meanwhile, not far from them, Jimeny’s daughter is kidnapped in the middle of the night by strange men. Scared and still incredulous that her daughter has predicted her own kidnapping, Jimena tries to find answers that will bring her back to her baby girl, and to do so, she joins forces with Mario, who also tries to protect his son from capture. Along with Sandra, Culebra and Lucas, three teenagers who have also been threatened by possessing strange powers, Mario and Jimena will start a fake family in an anonymous house in Valle Perdido, a suburb far from the city. From that moment on, all five will try to lead a seemingly normal life, despite their talents,Bartosz Stuła
¡Ala… Dina!
The series tells about the adventures of Dina – a genie who, after 400 years locked in a lamp, is freed and joins the family of Tomás, a widower with two children, Eva and Álvaro, where she is employed as a domestic worker. When they discover Dina’s powers, they forbid her from using them. Despite this, Dina resorts to her supernatural abilities at the slightest opportunity. A typical family comedy.
The tenant
Leo Montes is a wonderful and at the same time very naive writer who comes to Madrid and his boss puts him in the house of one of his employees who lives with his roommate. However, the hero is unlucky. At the beginning, a pot falls on his head, and before he dies, an alien who disappeared on Earth after losing his ship is transported to his body. The main advantage of this series is great jokes when a stupid alien tries to imitate the man he dominates.
Wall
2045. The scarcity of natural resources after World War III led to the reintroduction of dictatorship in Spain. The city of Madrid is divided into two sectors by a fence; on the one hand, the government and the privileged classes, and on the other, behind the fence, the rest of the population. Quite an interesting dystopia – Bartosz Stuła
Stories to keep you awake 1966-2014
It was a television series originally broadcast from 1966–1982 on Spanish television. Directed and produced by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador, it consists of 29 episodes of varying duration. It is characterized by a series of anthologies adapting literary works, crime fiction, science fiction or authors such as Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe or Robert Arthur, although it also had the premiere of its own scripts. In 2021, the series was rebooted.
I am alive
A police inspector named Andrés Vargas is killed in pursuit of a serial killer known as the Night Butcher, and after staying at La Pasarela and meeting El Enlace, he reincarnates into another police officer, Manuel Marquez, five years later. In his police actions to capture the murderer, Andrés will have his own daughter Susana as a companion. He is also accompanied by El Enlace on his way back to Earth. No one can know his true identity, but Andrés Vargas, now Manuel Marquez, will die anyway. Fantasy and criminal intrigue are intertwined in this TVE production, which, in addition to the supernatural police plot base, also contains dramatic and humorous elements.
Angel or demon
This is a Spanish supernatural series broadcast by Telecinco for 22 episodes divided into 2 seasons broadcast in 2011. The plot tells about the constant war fought between the angels and the fallen, who fight a battle that dates back to the eternal times. While demons cause pain and destruction, the mission of the angels is to try to repair the problems caused by the fallen. Ángel o demonio follows the life of Valeria, a girl whose life changes by 180 degrees when Natael confesses that she is an angel and entrusts her with a mission to fight the forces of evil – Bartosz Stuła
The escape
In the near future, oil resources are almost exhausted and their extraction is not profitable, which causes the global economic crisis to be provoked with the growing instability of the population. The government is taking the appropriate steps in the face of what has happened, but it is creating new resistance movements that the French organization is trying to contain. Daniel, one of the leaders of the revolutionary resistance movement, was persecuted and imprisoned for five years in La Torre, a prison on the high seas for initially opposing the government. Anna – his wife, is ready to do anything to get him out of there, she will try to help him escape, pretending to be a government official. So he is trying to get a place in the Corps of Prison Officers and a position in La Torre, but he will find everything in his plan,
Paradise
Levante, 1992, end of summer in a seaside town. Sandra, Eva and Malena, 15, disappear into a nightclub without a trace. It seems the police are not looking in the right direction, so Javi, Sandra’s younger brother, starts an investigation with Quino and Álvaro, his best friends, and Zeta, the class bully. Together, they discover that those who have his sister are not of this world. Along with Costa, the tenacious agent of Guardia Civil, the gang will have to uncover the plans of these supernatural beings if they want to find the girls before it’s too late.
Moon, the mystery of Calenda
The series is about the mysterious world of werewolves and also revolves around a judge who moves to a small town. There, far from the big city, she travels with her teenage daughter and together they face werewolves and other fantastic creatures, more typical of stories and legends. The judge will try to find a logical explanation for several shocking events, and will be accompanied by a group of judicial police officers in the investigation. Meanwhile, her daughter will experience a dangerous love story with a werewolf – Bartosz Stuła
Boat
A global catastrophe causes a cataclysm that leads to the disappearance of the land. When the planet is flooded with water, the crew and young students of the school ship seem to be the only survivors … Isolated from the rest of the world, who do not even know if there are still passengers of a certain ship. The main person responsible for bringing the ship to the port is a certain captain and scientist of the ship. In addition to the students who are there, there are Ulises, a rebellious stowaway with hero money, and Ainhoa, the captain’s teenage daughter who boarded with her younger sister Valeria in the wake of her mother’s recent death to be closer to her father.
Supercharly
The day Carlos Cansado has an accident and loses his job marks the beginning of a new life. Suddenly, he begins to experience strange phenomena: he can read the minds of people he meets, see situations that will happen in the future and is able to move objects with the strength of his mind. The main character thinks it’s all due to the stress of losing his job, but the geneticist gives him the answer he needs: he has one more gene that is his source of power, which makes him a kind of superhero. Carlos will have to embrace this new aspect and start acting as Supercharly, but in his day-to-day life it will still be an absolute disaster. In addition, he will not be able to tell his wife or three children that he is a superhero, which will cause many conflicts at home. With the growing popularity of Supercharly,Bartosz Stuła
* I allowed myself to translate some names