Valeria is 17 and pregnant. She lives in Puerto Vallarta with Clara, her half sister. Valeria has not wanted her long-absent mother, April, to find out about her pregnancy, but due to the economic strain and the overwhelming responsibility of having a baby in the house, Clara decides to call their mother. April arrives, willing to her daughters, but we soon understand why Valeria had wanted her to stay away.

Cleo is one of two domestic workers who help Antonio and Sofía take care of their four children in 1970s Mexico City. Complications soon arise when Antonio suddenly runs away with his mistress and Cleo finds out that she's pregnant. When Sofía decides to take the kids on vacation, she invites Cleo for a much-needed getaway to clear her mind and bond with the family.

Somewhere in Santiago at a dimly-lit nightclub, Orlando, the kindly and well-off owner of a textile company, locks eyes with Marina, a hopeful singer and the roughly half-his-age love of his life. But, unfortunately, after Marina's birthday celebration and a night of passion, Orlando falls gravely ill--and by the following morning--he dies in hospital. In the wake of her companion's untimely death, Marina will soon realise that, from now on, everything is brought into question: her involvement in Orlando's death, their unconventional relationship; and above all, her right to mourn her beloved deceased. In the end, what was Marina's crime; a deed so hideous that would rob a fantastic woman of her respect, her dignity, and ultimately, her identity?

Rubén is a lonely truck driver who has been taking the motorway from Asunción, Paraguay to Buenos Aires, Argentina for years, carrying wood. However, today's journey is different because of Jacinta, who accompanies him as his passenger all the way to Buenos Aires. What's more, Rubén finds out at the very moment that her little Anahí, who's 8 months old, travels with them. As kilometres go by, the relationship between Rubén and Jacinta will grow. They will slowly sip into each other's soul. None of them talks much about their lives. None asks much either. It's a few word journey but it is not a silent one.

Chekhov in contemporary Argentina. Mecha and Gregorio are at their rundown country place near La Ciénaga with their teen children. It's hot. The adults drink constantly; Mecha cuts herself, engendering a trip to the hospital and a visit from her son José. A cousin, Tali, brings her children. The kids are on their own, sunbathing by the filthy pool, dancing in town, running in the hills with shotguns, driving cars without licenses. One of the teen girls loves Isabel, a family servant constantly accused of stealing. Mother and son, son and sisters, teen and Isabel are in each other's beds and bathrooms with a creepy intimacy. With no adults paying attention, who's at risk?

Chela and Chiquita are both descended from wealthy families in Asunción and have been together for over 30 years. But recently, their financial situation has worsened and they begin selling off their inherited possessions. But when their debts lead to Chiquita being imprisoned on fraud charges, Chela is forced to face a new reality. Driving for the first time in years, she begins to provide a local taxi service to a group of elderly wealthy ladies. As Chela settles into her new life, she encounters the much younger Angy, forging a fresh and invigorating new connection. Chela finally begins to break out of her shell and engage with the world, embarking on her own personal, intimate revolution.

Two men meet in Barcelona and after spending a day together they realize that they have already met twenty years ago.

Juan, a wealthy householder and Natalia are an artistic middle-class couple. They decide to change the life of the city. And they move to countryside with their two young children Eleazar and Rut for a plain and simple country life. Starting again with an ostentatious house (in comparison to the homes of the few neighbors), they initially enjoy the taste of rural life. However this change in taste begins to make the marriage crumble. The children, on the other hand, are not encumbered by previous ideas and enjoy the life offered by this bleak place. Juan begins to have contact with people who have the same ideals. Seven, a man who usually does everything in his power to survive leads him to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in a ramshackle cabin in the woods. At one stage, the couple jet off for an up-scale sex holiday in Europe, where the rooms in the bath-house are named after Hegel and Duchamp.

2012 drama film directed by Carlos Reygadas

Juan, Sara, and Samuel, three teenagers from the slums of Guatemala, travel to the United States in search of a better life. On their journey through Mexico, they meet Chauk, an Indian from Chiapas who doesn't speak Spanish. Traveling together in freight trains and walking on railroad tracks, they soon have to face an odyssey that will change their lives forever.

2013 Mexican film directed by Diego Quemada-Díez

Somewhere in the spanish country, in the 60s. Paco and his wife Régula are very poor. They work as tenant farmers for a very wealthy landowner. They have 3 children. One is backward. The others can not got to school because the master "needs" their work. When Regula's brother is fired from where he has worked for 61 years, he settles down at their little place... An attack against the archaism of the spanish country of the 60s.

A family lives in the Mexican countryside raising fighting bulls. Esther is in charge of running the ranch, while her husband Juan, a world-renowned poet, raises and selects the beasts. Although in an open marriage, their relationship begins to crumble when Esther falls in love with an American horse-breaker and Juan is unable to control his jealousy.

In the mountains of Monterrey, Mexico, a small street gang named "Los Terkos" spend their days listening to slowed down cumbia music and attending dance parties, showing off their outfits, hairstyles and gang alliances. These different bands of disaffected youth refer to themselves as Kolombianos, combining the Cholo culture with Colombian music. Ulises Samperio (17), the leader of Los Terkos, tries to protect his friends from the nefarious elements of a quickly evolving drug/political war, but after a misunderstanding with a local cartel, he is forced to leave for Jackson Heights, Queens, a diverse immigrant community in New York City. Ulises tries to assimilate, but when he learns that his gang and the whole Kolombia culture is under threat, he questions his place in America and longs to return home.

Maria, whose parents live in the country, cannot stand her father's authoritarian ways and moves to the city. She finds a job as a cleaner and tries to survive in a wretched apartment in the shabby part of a big city. She is pregnant, and the fact that her boyfriend has abandoned her does not help matters. When her father goes to the hospital for an operation, her mother comes to stay with her. Her neighbor, an old recluse whose only friend is his dog, begins to come out of his shell and these three lost souls try to give each other the strength to start over.

Rafael witnesses Marina, a woman with a glass eye, being attacked on the street by Daniel, whom she has known since childhood they both spent in the orphanage. Rafael rescues Marina from Daniel and takes her to his home, where a relationship develops between them. Marina is pregnant but Daniel doesn't want the child, so Rafael offers to be the father, being physically unable to sire his own. He and Marina stay together as a couple, then as a happy family. But once everything seems to be settled, Daniel--newly released from prison--shows up again.

A village and the crazy situations encountered by its citizens.

1980. In a little town close to Coto of Doñana (Andalusia, south to Spain), two teen girls have disappeared. The father of one of the girls, who have connections with important people in the forces of the law, gets that two police detectives of homicides from Madrid are assigned to the mission to find the girls if they are alive, or find the assassin if they appear died. The detectives are Pedro Suárez and Juan Robles. While that Suárez is a young, taciturn and circumspect agent in a Spain that it tries to find a new identity as democratic country after General Franco's death in 1975, Robles is a veteran, funny and expeditious agent, with a mysterious past as alleged member of Franco's Armed Police dismantled in 1978. Unable to reconcile one with each other, Suárez and Robles find trapped by the hostile environment of a place where the old Franco's methods and customs still alive, and where they two aren't welcome. When the girls appears died, the following investigation move the cops to discover deaths happened before of other teen girls that they never were investigated. While Suárez meets beautiful Rocío, an enigmatic woman of the town, Robles learns to move by the town looking for information, learning about rich and powerful people that make their will with total impunity. But according the clues signs Quini, a young of the town charming and womanizer related with the girls, a journalist arrives to the town to report about the case, contacting Suárez about it and about Robles' past. Without more options, Suárez and Robles will have to leave their differences apart not only for solve the case, but not dying in the try.

Spanish language movies

More lists by Natalie Johnson

Movies

Other foreign language films