08 EVENT REVIEW
London Spanish Film Festival
The London Spanish Film Festival (LSFF) (28 September - 10 October) is in its 8th
year, showcasing
a pool of fantastic short and feature length films all in the Spanish language (subtitled too of course) for Londoners to explore and enjoy films that may not otherwise have had commercial releases in the UK. Here are two of the films we managed to catch;
Casual Day (2007) Dir. Max Lemcke
Stars: Juan Diego, Luis Tosar, Javier Rios and Estibaliz Gabilondo.
Casual Day is all about what its title implies – a day where all the usual cut throat stresses and restrictive nuances of a workday are turned on its head and colleagues are forced – no, obliged - to get together and partake in various activities that will hopefully exorcise trust, solidarity between employees and bosses.
The story predominantly focuses
A weekend trip to the Spanish countryside reveals that there is nothing casual about it. If anything themes of bullying, workplace nepotism and sexism are brought to a head outside of the office. It’s all done in a very humorous, idiosyncratic way though. Scenes between the employees are indicative of real office rumblings and frustrations; in turn, Casual Day is a transparent admission of a boss’ obligation to keep their workers happy.
on Ruy (Tosar), a 25-year-old young man stuck in more ways than one, but two being: his possessive girlfriend Ines and her father Jose (Diego). Ruy chooses to ignore Ines’ fifteen phone calls but he can’t avoid Jose because he’s also Ruy’s boss and they’re spending the casual day together.
Like a workplace drama, there is an array of intriguing stories to tell. However, the audience is left to make up their own mind about the voices on the other end of a phone call, or the back-story of a troubled employee and the mystery of what lies ahead for others. As a short film, it doesn’t really conclude or have any kind of immediate resolution. That’s fine; it’s slightly more realistic that way.
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