Pragda Spanish Film Festival: Asalto Al Cine
Pragda Spanish Film Festival: Asalto Al Cine
Director:Iria Gómez Concheiro / 124 min / Release Year: 2011 / Production Year: 2010 / Comedy
Drama Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Nationality: Mexico
Cast: Gabino Rodríguez, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Ángel Sosa, Paulina Avalos
The Cinema Hold Up [Asalto al Cine] is the second film in the Pragda Film Festival.
The Cinema Hold Up [Asalto al Cine] is a vibrant, authentic, and wonderfully observed portrait of the tempo and texture of today’s Mexican youth culture. First-time feature director Iria Gómez Concheiro draws pitch-perfect performances from the talented ensemble cast and registers a strong and original voice in Mexican cinema. Negus, Chale, Sapo and Chata are teenagers who grew up in the same rundown district of Mexico City. They spend their days listening to hip-hop, smoking marihuana and fantasizing about the opposite sex. One day they have the bright idea of robbing a movie theater, jeopardizing the one sure thing they have in life – their friendship.
An explosive, entertaining comedy with impeccable performances, this original, unpredictable debut establishes Iria Gómez Concheiro as a promising new voice in Mexican cinema. Gómez Conchiero acknowledges a debt to Italian neorealism and Brazilian Novo Cinema, and she has a liking for gritty locations, long tracking shots and non-pro actors. Yet she doesn’t push any sort of sociopolitical agenda, and her work here (shooting entirely in Mexico City’s colorful yet notorious Colonia Guerrero) has an effortless sense of place. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Ryan Long, from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, will give a brief introduction before the film showing.
The 2014 Festival is presented by Fatemeh Keshavarz, Director of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Laurie Frederik, Director of the Latin American Studies Center, and Juan Carlos Quintero-Herencia, Head of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. The Festival Coordinator is José M. Naharro, also of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
Learn about other films in the festival:
Cows Wearing Glasses [Las Vacas Con Gafas], October 6
The Cinema Hold Up [Asalto Al Cine], October 13
From the Land to Your Table [¿Qué culpa tiene el tomate?], October 27
Bad Hair [Pelo Malo], November 10
Barefoot in the Kitchen [Con la Pata Quebrada], November 17
The film festival is made possible with support from the PRAGDA Spanish Film Club and Spain Arts and Culture.