‘Women on Top’ stars Spanish actress Penélope Cruz (last seen in ‘All About my Mother’) as a gifted chef who leaves her philandering husband in Brazil and starts a new life in San Francisco. The film is directed by Venezuelan Fina Torres and written by Brazilian Vera Blasi.
According to Torres, the increasing number of women directors in Latin America is a relatively recent phenomenon. “In Venezuela there are a lot of women directors,” she explains. “There were so few of us when I started working. I don’t know exactly why, but there has been a change and progression for women. It’s like the market is really opening up and women are showing they can make successful films.”
The four popular Spanish films to be screened at the festival also differ from their Hollywood counterparts by featuring women as the leads in complex, intense and dramatic roles. Apart from the focus on women, the festival will also showcase two much-discussed Mexican films: ‘La Ley de Herodes’ (Herold’s Law) and ‘Todo el Poder’ (All the Power).
‘Herodes’ made international headlines last year when the Mexican government attempted to ban its release until after the July Mexican presidential elections. The film, eventually released in Mexico in February, is a black comedy that lampoons the corruption of Mexico’s once leading party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party. (‘Herodes’ shared this year’s Sundance Film Festival Latin American prize with Arturo Ripstein’s ‘No One Writes to the Colonel’.) ‘Todo el Poder’ also caused waves back home for its cynical take on Mexico City’s corrupt police force and politicians.
The festival’s co-founders Marlene Dermer, Edward James Olmos (the voice of Chief Tannabok in ‘The Road to El Dorado’) and George Hernádez decided to have the festival early this year in the hope of catching a summer crowd. “We are here to celebrate the richness and diversity of Latinos, but we are not a festival only for Latinos,” said Dermer.