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Isaki Lacuesta has returned to the Malaga Film Festival with his highly anticipated rock band drama “Saturn Return” (“Segundo Premio”), a fabled account of iconic Spanish group Los Planetas and their struggle to make their legendary third album,“Una semana en un motor de un autobús.”

The film, which the award-winning filmmaker directed with Pol Rodríguez and wrote with Fernando Navarro, stars Daniel Ibáñez, Stéphanie Magnin and musician-turned-actor Cristalino.

“Saturn Returns” screened in competition in Malaga, where Lacuesta and Isa Campo, double San Sebastian Golden Shell winners, won the best director Silver Biznaga for their 2016 mystery drama “The Next Skin.”

Speaking to Variety, Lacuesta explains how the film is not about Los Planetas but rather about the legend of the band and the mystique they themselves have cultivated over the years. Indeed, the story of “Saturn Return” is largely based on the band’s songs.

“It is not a journalistic documentary,...

It was Spain’s equivalent of Bob Dylan’s 1966 “Judas” moment in London, when he turned electric in front of an angry live crowd. In 1996 at a concert in Madrid, the flamenco singer Enrique Morente ended a typical set, the curtains opened and from behind them emerged the rock band Lagartija Nick. To quote one of the interviewees of Omega, this new, radical mix of flamenco and rock — fusing traditional flamenco motifs with songs and lyrics by Leonard Cohen and poems by the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca — was a "hurricane of decibels." It split Morente’s fans down...

Seen at the 8th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival (Jimff). I'm very glad I saw the Spanish documentary Morente, as it introduced me to a wonderful style of music that I was not very familiar beforehand but particularly because it brought the formidable artist Enrique Morente to my attention: a man with a beautiful voice who sings with heartrending passion. However, aside from its resplendent, larger-than-life protagonist, I have to chalk this documentary up as a failure. It is poorly made and worse it comes off as indulgent.  Enrique Morente was a flamenco singer who had reached the pinnacle of his art. At the time of the making of this film, which incidentally were his last days (he passed away shortly after the project...

The 30th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (Viff) is starting to finally announce their roster of films with an outstanding line-up of documentaries that celebrate the power of cinema and the arts across the Dance, Music, Theatre and the Visual Arts mediums. Legendary filmmakers Wim Wenders , Frederick Wiseman, and Mike Figgis are among the talent presenting films at the festival this year which runs from September 29-October 14th. Here is a taste of what to expect so far:

Pina

Germany/France/UK | Director: Wim Wenders

One German master more than does justice to another as Wim Wenders fashions a kinetic and gorgeous tribute to the singular German choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch. “Entertainment that will send culture vultures swooning… the film lets the artist’s work speak for itself via big, juicy slabs of performance.” — Variety

Flamenco, Flamenco

Spain | Director: Carlos Saura

Carlos Saura continues to mine a rich vein...