8th Hispanic Film Festival

The Athens Hispanic Film Festival – FeCHA returns for its 8th edition,  to highlight for one more year the cinematic wealth of Spanish-speaking countries. The 8th FeCHA will take place at the open-air cinemas Ellinis Cinemax Europa Cinemas, Aello Cinemax, while screenings will be hosted by the Cervantes Institute of Athens and the Hellenic American Union.

The 8th FeCHA is part of This is Athens – City Festival by the Municipality of Athens.

The program of the 8th FeCHA includes 17 feature films, a tribute to the Peruvian director Roberto Bonilla and a selection of the best Spanish-language short films of recent years in the beloved section of the cortoFeCHA Festival.

The official opening film of the Festival will be the film “Bajo Terapia”, in the presence of the film’s director and producer Gerardo Herrero and producer Mariela Besuievsky. In the film three married couples undergo an unusual group therapy. Their psychologist, although she is not with them in the session, has left them folders with instructions on what to do. The film is based on the award-winning play by Argentine writer Matías Del Federico, which was first performed in Argentina in 2015, and has since been performed in more than 15 countries around the world. Herrero and Besuievsky produced the 2010 Academy Award-winning Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in Her Eyes.

The 8th FeCHA will close with the film ” Radical”, by Christopher Zalla, which won the Audience Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Based on a true story, the film tells the story of a teacher in a corrupt and violent Mexican border town who tries a radical new teaching method to unlock his students’ curiosity and potential, perhaps even their intelligence.

Program

Monday, May 27 | 18:30 – Short films “cortoFeCHA” (Duration 80 minutes)

La melodía torrencial | José Luis Saturno, Mexico, 2022, 7 minutes

A town suffering a long drought entrusts its destiny to a wandering musician who has the power to bring rain with his accordion’s music.

Valentín, 1989 | David Hebrero, Spain, 2023, 23 minutes

Valentine’s Day is the day Isabel has been waiting for the whole year. When she wakes up, she realizes her mom has mysteriously disappeared and her abusive father has moved back in.

Regreso al armario | Gerald B. Fillmore, Spain, 2023, 10 minutes

After ten years living together, Sebastian is going to confess the truth to Lucia about his sexual orientation. Sebastian is a victim of social pressure and he has been leading a double life but now the time has come to confess Lucia that he is heterosexual. It’s time to come out of the closet, or rather to back into it.

Cuentas Divinas | Eulàlia Ramon, Spain, 2022, 12 minutes

Monica is a normal woman with a normal life in any place in any of these modern times. However, one day, for an unimportant detail that could have been resolved like any other previous disagreement, she kills her husband. She thus discovers crime as a substitute for anxiolytics, liberation from all hypocritical moralism and, why not?, the usefulness. Nominated for a Goya Short Film Award.

Azai | Sara Jael Galvis Vera, Colombia, 2023, 18 minutes

Azai, an introspective teenager, and her annoying younger brother Antonio anxiously await the arrival of their parents while spending holidays with their relatives. Antonio seeks to spend time with Azai, but she constantly avoids him as she tries to hide the fact that their parents are getting divorced. Frustrated Antonio unleashes a family fight.

Malegro verte | Nüll García, Spain, 2023, 10 minutes

Two friends bump into each other at a shopping mall’s toilet after losing touch in their teens. One is a successful white businesswoman while the other is a romani woman who hardly makes ends meet.

Monday, May 27 | 20:00

La Revuelta | Lucero González, Mexico, 2022, 84 minutes

A journey to rediscover the great bet of fifty years of life and feminist activism of a group of women united to make a revolt and see the changes in the new generations. The screening is done in collaboration with Lesbians* on the verge, the Embassy of Mexico and IMCINE, in the context of Athens Pride Week.

Tuesday, May 28 | 20:00

Tito, Margot y yo | Mercedes Arias – Delfina Vidal, Panama – Colombia, 2022, 92 minutes

The official submission of Panama to the Oscars. A cinematic portrait of the larger-than-life love affair of Panamanian diplomat Tito Arias and his wife, famous dancer Dame Margot Fonteyn, that weaves together interviews, found footage, letters, old photographs, and emotive dance sequences. In collaboration with the Embassy of Panama.