Fleurs d'un autre monde

This film addresses serious issues without being heavy-handed or pedantic. The characters are complex individuals, the setting is authentic, the dialog is realistic, often tinged with humor. Some of the film's most charming moments are silent, with only a child's face filling the screen. The humor comes from the characters' personalities, not from contrived situations. There is not a single false note of melodrama or farce in this film. Luis Tosar gives such an understated performance that he disappears into his character. Lissete Mejia and Marilyn Torres anchor the film with nuanced, memorable performances. They are the reason to watch this film.

Three couples on the making in a remote Castilian village. The physical horizons are as vast as the mental horizons are narrow. The three men are local, the three women come from distant places (the "Flowers from another world" of the title). While telling three short stories, the film makes perceptive observations on what makes relationships start and hold on, cultural shock and wear, coexistence of the poor and the less poor, antagonism between cities and countryside. The actors are natural, the script, intelligent and with a point of humor.

A film about a village in Spain importing Latin American brides-to-be for the middle aged farmers and rural workers to marry and create families with. It follows three stories of these unions.

The ladies come on a coach to a warm welcome and a reception from the village but the hard, rural way of living soon gets to the ladies in question - a Cuban, a Dominican and a Basque nurse from Bilbao. With the birthrate declining even moreso in Spain today than it did in the 1990's, this film is relevant today as it was then.

These days, you see many Spanish-Latin American couples and families all over Spain - from Vigo to Almeria - it's not a rarity these days but then it was but if the young of these villages and towns leave for Madrid or Germany, London or Miami then who is going to take their places to keep society going? This film answers that question.

If aging population and decline in birth rate are any indication of a troublesome European identity which will continue to haunt all Europe by year 2020,European subcontinent is in desperate need of a poetic film which talks about issues related to population.It is really a wonder that "Flores De Otro Mundo" has not been criticized by feminists.This is primarily because Spanish actress turned director Iciar Bollain has ensured that the female protagonists of her film "Flowers from another world" are not treated as mere objects as the title of her film makes allusion to the word "flowers"."Flores De Otro Mundo" is a supreme example of a work of entertaining art with a serious message which one can take home and share with family members. It is amazing to experience how there is plenty of dignified humor in scenes of match making exercises involving lonely,middle aged Spanish men from farming community and desperate Latino women.By watching this film one can have a first hand idea of why there is dearth of brides in some communities.This is something which is not related to Spain only. This phenomenon can be felt in many countries all over the world.

There are films for holding sticky hands in the back row, looking into each other's eyes; there are films for getting all excited with tons of special effects to bedazzle eyes and minds of onlookers; there are films for filling up the useless hours of television when only insomniacs are available; there are films hyped up to smash shattering box-office record sales with all those glorious glamorous Hollywood stars; there are films to put on at Christmas and Easter every year, supposedly to remind us what the heck we are celebrating; there are films for just dozing off; there are films for Saturday afternoon so that the kids won't go out.

And then there are cinematographic works of art that remain in your memory forever, that reach down into your soul, that quietly leave a tremendous feeling of immeasurable satisfaction. There are not many and as a rule they do not get to Hollywood and do not get any Oscars, though they may make their mark in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, San Sebastián……….

`El Sur'(1982)(qv) directed by Víctor Érice is one such exquisite gem; and in this film we have playing the part of Estrella, aged 15, Icíar Bollaín. Because of this I await anything she might now be doing, twenty years later. At last I have my reward: it has been worth waiting. Srta. Icíar has matured and is indeed herself a `flower from another world'. In this film we have proof of this. Ms. Bollaín, in common with a few other European directors, has chosen to make films of socialogical import, and this is well achieved in `Flores de Otro Mundo'.

The script was co-written by herself and Julio Llamazares. This writer is well-known in Spain through hundreds of newspaper articles, letters, several books and so on. He is an ardent defender of rural Spanish life, which, over the last 30-40 years, has been declining, and indeed he lives in or spends large parts of his time in such places as the mountainous `Ancares' in the province of León, north-western Spain, or in the pre-Pyrenean areas of Huesca in the north of Aragón. Ms. Bollaín could hardly have found a better person for helping her with this film in the greatly depopulated central province of Guadalajara, north-east of Madrid.

In the 30s, 40s and 50s Spain emigrated to Argentina, Chile, Mexico, France, etc. However, today the boats are turned – literally – and the country is now a receiver of immigrants. Indeed, rural areas of Spain have even been advertising for people to go to their villages with children so as to keep their schools open, or just simply advertising for women to be future wives for the unmarried men who remain working the land. Against this sociological background, Icíar Bollaín sets her film `Flores de Otro Mundo' – in this case Cuban and Dominican women – who arrive at a village lost in the sierras of Guadalajara. The film narrates the experiences of a group of these women, as all concerned, villagers and new-arrivals alike, suffer problems in differences in culture, opposing mentalities and concepts of life, especially over the issue of rural and urban life.

Well-conceived and well-acted, the film is an excellent vehicle for conveying real human issues. The leading actors – such as the well-known Chete Lera and the Cuban actress Marylin Torres – are ably supported by the whole cast, as well as the real local people in the village of Cantalojas – baptized Santa Eulalia for the film – in the extreme north-west of the province, and where the film was given its first public showing! Some intensely dramatic moments are carefully combined with warmer human issues, such that the film achieves an endearing credibility. Take note of the scenes with `Janay' for example. Recommended film, though people learning Spanish might find some of the accents a little difficult at times. Well, the worst you have to do is bear with the subtitles; it's well worth your while.