Lucía is a 14-year-old girl living in Australia with her beautiful Spanish mother, Lola (the title refers to her and means "Spanish woman"), while her Italian father (named Ricardo) has run off with an Australian woman. Lola is a woman of fiery emotions, which she demonstrates very quickly by throwing herself on top of and then in front of the car as Ricardo attempts to drive off. She wants him back, or at least for him to pay her bills, and failing that she wants revenge. Lucía would just like a normal family and to spend time with the family chickens and the goat named Elvis.
That barely gives a hint of the flavor of the film, which is *very* quirky, often darkly humorous, and sometimes dramatic. I enjoyed individual bits (Lourdes Bartolomé steals the scenes she's in as Lucía's aunt Manola), but on the whole it didn't really work for me. Still, there's enough here to give it a mild recommendation.
This was Australia's nomination for the best foreign language film of 2001, which is an interesting concept in that Australia is an English speaking country, but this is in fact a foreign language film. It is currently playing in Europe, but the director (who was at the San Francisco International Film Festival screening where I saw it on 5/1/2002 to introduce it but not for questions) does not expect it to get distribution in the U.S.
That barely gives a hint of the flavor of the film, which is *very* quirky, often darkly humorous, and sometimes dramatic. I enjoyed individual bits (Lourdes Bartolomé steals the scenes she's in as Lucía's aunt Manola), but on the whole it didn't really work for me. Still, there's enough here to give it a mild recommendation.
This was Australia's nomination for the best foreign language film of 2001, which is an interesting concept in that Australia is an English speaking country, but this is in fact a foreign language film. It is currently playing in Europe, but the director (who was at the San Francisco International Film Festival screening where I saw it on 5/1/2002 to introduce it but not for questions) does not expect it to get distribution in the U.S.