Ernesto Chao

Cuéntame cómo pasó

Recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Alcántaras, during the last years of the rule of Francisco Franco and the beginning of the Spanish Transition to democracy.

Aquí no hay quien viva

A caustic satire of many of the 'types' found in Spanish society.

Pratos Combinados

Almirante Hotel

When a dead woman is found in a hotel room, the destiny of a town changes forever. In a puzzling case involving the hotel’s director, her lover, and the town’s most prominent family, dark secrets and forbidden affairs will shock the core of a conservative society. Set in post-WWII Spain, a time when Spanish people had little freedom under the ever-watching eye of the Civil Guard and the Franco dictatorship. In such circumstances, the protagonists of the story find solace in their family, love, and their hope of a better future.

Huidos

Death of a Fisherman

One morning, the body of a sailor is found lying on the beach, washed in by the tide.. With no witnesses or any sign of the dead man’s boat, Inspector Leo Caldas begins immersing himself in the town’s seafaring atmosphere as he endeavours to shed light on the crime. He finds himself among men and women who prefer not to reveal their suspicions to him. But a sudden discovery sets him off in an unexpected direction.

María (and Everybody Else)

Ever since her mum died when she was fifteen, Maria has taken care of her father and her siblings. Responsible and in control, she's always been a rock for the family and feels proud of her efforts. That's why her father's sudden love for his nurse and the announcement of their marriage brings Maria's world crashing down around her. At the age of 35 and unable to find a steady partner, she'll have to take the plunge and dare to change her own fate.

Urxa

Three moments in the life of a woman during the 20th century in Galician society.

The Value of Time

Alfredo Méndez, 40, keeps his wife's cryogenically preserved corpse in his country house. This unusual behavior stems from his love for her and his medical ambition. However, in recent years his health has been declining, forcing him to seek the care of Corona, a young nurse who also serves as a maid.

The Frontier Law

Barbara, a journalist in the beginning of the 20th century, searches in the border between Portugal and Galicia a bandit called El Argentino. In her travel she meets two men that say that they belong to his gang.

Días de voda

Sonia, the daughter of a prominent publisher, is about to fulfill her lifelong dream of marrying Rosendo, a promising writer with homosexual tendencies, who pines for his fiancee far less than he does for the brand new literary award launched by his future father-in-law. The wedding shindig will bring its share of unexpected surprises. This is a film is part of the DOGME 95 Movement, described as follows: 'the goal of the Dogme collective is to purify film-making by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, post-production modifications and other gimmicks. The emphasis on purity forces the filmmakers to focus on the actual story and on the actors' performances. Given these restrictions the story and the action of DIAS DE BODA ('WEDDING DAYS') seem much more immediate and the lapses in fluidity of the story can be forgiven - to a point.

13 Curses

Jacobo is a young sculptor that returns to native city, Santiago of Compostela, to see his mother, locked up a psychiatric hospital for to kill to her husband, when he believed she dead years ago. To their arrival, visions of Mateo, his dead father eighteen years ago, begin to persecute to him, since his father died by shot gun, peculiarly, when thirteen peals sounded in the cathedral, fact what obsesses to Jacobo. After watching several times, Mateo convinces his son to make the work for the cathedral that his father couldn't finish in life, but what begins as a simple work becomes a madness spiral when Jacobo discovers the true intentions of the ghost of his father: to kill to his son to usurp his body to finish the statue, and after to return to the life.

Condenado a vivir

The Witching Hour

César and Pilar tour the Spanish countryside with their bus, showing films and doing magic spectacles in small villages. In one of these trips they find Saga, a beautiful young woman who starts to travel with them and changes their lives in unexpected ways.

Divine Words

A work of Valle-Inclán, the story takes place in Galicia in the early twentieth century. To escape poverty, the wife of a sacristan uses a hydrocephalic child as a sideshow attraction. This causes a confrontation with her sister-in-law.