In the year 2000, Maixabel Lasa’s husband, Juan Maria Jauregi, was killed by ETA. Eleven years later, she receives an incredible request: one of the men who killed Juan wants to meet with her in the Nanclares de la Oca prison in Araba (Spain), where he is serving his sentence after breaking ties with the terrorist group. Despite her reservations and her immense pain, Maixabel Lasa agrees to meet face to face with those who ended the life of the person who had been her companion since she was 16 years old. ‘Everyone deserves a second chance’, she said, when asked why she was willing to confront the man who killed her husband.
Icíar Bollaín
Director
Blanca Portillo
Maixabel Lasa
Luis Tosar
Ibon Etxezarreta
Urko Olazábal
Luis Carrasco
María Cerezuela
María Jáuregui
Tamara Canosa
Esther
María Jesús Hoyos
Madre de Ibon
Arantxa Aranguren
Carmen
Bruno Sevilla
Luichi (Marido María)
Josu Ormaetxe
Juan Mari Jáuregui
Martxelo Rubio
Amigo Maixabel
Patxo Tellería
Director Cárcel
Alongside A Drowning Man, I Signed The Petition, 3 Logical Exits, and A World Not Ours, A Man Returned continues to paint a realistic portrait of the Refugee Crisis that eschews the Western gaze and stereotype. These are real portraits painted by a director with lived experience, cultural connection and an amazing eye for visuals.
This current year, as well as the past several, has seen a slowly building increase in something the horror genre has required for quite a while in this critic's opinion...originality. I've stated before that I am very hard to please when it comes to this vein of the film industry's offerings, always leaning more towards that which sends chills through my very being in lieu of buckets of blood and gore.
A complex, realistic, and loving mother-daughter relationship is at the heart of this story about Black pageants and the fight for a better future.
A quiet film that does not demand your tears but earns them. It explores love that lingers, timing that fails, and the silence between what was and what could have been.
Ben Affleck leads The Way Back, a seemingly cathartic film for him after the actor’s recent bouts with alcoholism and rehab. He plays Jack, a man fighting his own battles who happens upon coaching a boys’ basketball team, the same team he once played for back in high school.
"The Platform" is horror and science fiction film doubling as a visual commentary on capitalism and economic inequality. The movie is not for the faint of heart nor the viewer hoping for political neutrality in their film's depth.