Wild Tales at the Spanish Film Festival 2015

The lights dimmed at Palace Electric Cinemas on an icy Canberra evening to a rather warm and wild audience. It’s the closing night of the Spanish Film Festival 2015 with the premier feature film, Wild Tales.

A sold out crowd attended the night and live entertainment, wine from Torres estate, Spanish beer and snacks from the Ole Fuego restaurant preceded the viewing.

Wild Tales was aptly picked to close the festival on a high note. Delving through 5 short stories from Argentina of revenge from a deadly case of road rage, a wedding gone wrong, an accidental manslaughter, a crazy restaurant owner hell-bent on getting arrested to a man who just cant do anything right.

Each film seemed to stun the audience as the action unfolded, with reactions of gasps, horrified laughter and screams.

“I was a little taken aback by the first half. It was so blunt and violent. But after that I got on board. It was thoroughly entertaining” Monica from Bruce said.

Some patrons felt that the stories didn’t live up to the hype surrounding Wild Tales.

“I found it entertaining but I don’t think its like what the reviewers are saying is a great masterpiece. It was good, but not that good” said one patron.

Wild Tales has been received well internationally and won best foreign film at the 2015 Goyas. It was also nominated for best foreign-language film at the recent Academy Awards.

This is the forth year in a row the Spanish Festival has made its way through Canberra on its national tour. The program consisted of 38 contemporary Spanish language films across 15 days. The film festival is expected to return next year.

The AUDI German International Film Festival is the next to pass through the Palace gates, with opening night on 20 May 2015. More information can be found on the festival website.

Story and photos by Matt O’Brien.