Pretextos

A journalist, overwhelmed by problems, contemplates suicide. He then finds a way out of his desperate situation by fleeing to a mountain village haunted by the legend of a bloodthirsty wolf that he, perhaps, can hunt.

In this free adaptation of the Henry James novel set in the early 19th century, a writer/critic dedicated to the life of poet Jeffrey Aspern, receives a mission in London. He is to sail to the Balearic Islands, the only place any information about Aspern may possibly be found. Unpublished texts by the poet are thought to be there; in the hands of an excentric old lady and her supposed niece, who live as recluses in an old palace on a remote small island off one of the Baleares. In his search, the writer becomes involved in their lives, while trying to obtain untangle the web of mysteries surrounding Alpern, his last work, and his relationship to these two women.

Marta must travel to Colombia to take charge of the corpse of his brother Juan, who has been murdered. Once there, she gets involved in a mysterious plot.

Five women directors offer their own very idiosyncratic view of sensuality and eroticism through the five senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.

Ami is a 6 year old girl, extremely sensitive. Her mother, Carmen, lives with the obsession of giving a son to her husband, Gabriel. When finally she gets pregnant, the relation between mother and daughter becomes a tragic one, driving the family to an inevitable nightmare.

Carme, a gynecologist from Barcelona who has just separated from her colleague, gets involved in the problem of Shahida, one of her patients, whose husband refuses to recognize their newborn daughter.

Surrounded by the profund social and political changes that took place in Barcelona between the end of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship and the Second Republic, the eldest son of a bankrupt aristocràtic family falls into a spyral of decadence. At the same time, his younger brother fights to return to the top at any price and without any scruples.

Lucía's heart misses a beat when she sees a man of her age, Juan in a department store. Without hesitating, she decides to follow him to his house, the same house where, twenty-five years before, while the Franco regime was on its last leg, Juan first met Lucía and fell in love with her...

Colometa is an average housewife with two children to care for in the late 1930's, as the Spanish Civil War is starting and her husband goes off to fight. She had been an ordinary woman working in a shop when she met the lively carpenter who married her, and their life together was without major problems. But now she is forced to raise her children under straitened circumstances, and after her husband dies, her life undergoes another major change as she marries for the second time. Underneath Colometa's acquiescent, forebearing exterior must lie just a few discontents, a few unrealized dreams - but they never surface as she blithely moves from one episode in her life to another.

Javi and his friend Carlos visit an old house on the outskirts of a small Spanish village. According to his brother Juan this is a haunted house and one can hear the voices of the dead. Later he is intrigued with a room which is always closed (the room where his father was found dead). He is so interested in these mysteries that he starts to investigate all the secrets of these dead people and their stories.

Maria is 30 years old, she is a peculiar person and has one goal: become a normal person. But first of all she must discover what is exactly this. Which kind of person is she? Is she a normal person? What does exactly means? That question goes deeper into her mind. After she lists every requirements, she proposes to reach them. In that journey she will find her brother's help, Alex, a 25 years old boy who is mentally challenged and achieves every list requirements. She meets Borja as well, a boy obsessed with diets and lose weight. They will make a curious pact: she helps him to live an active and healthy live, and he helps her to meet her goal: become a normal person.

An air-hostess is pregnant but she does not know the name of the father, a foreigner. When the baby is born, she gives it to her sister that has already two children. The child grows up as another member of the family. Although the adults keep the secret, the children know that he is different.

Summer of 1976. Bea is 16 years old and she collaborates with a group of women to make visible the feminist cause and achieve the approval of the right to abortion. The rebellion she feels in the blood will mix with an unexpected feeling that will disrupt her the inner world. Throughout these months, Bea will engage in a very special friendship with Miren, older than her. Her political commitment and her relationship with Miren will turn that summer into a stage that will mark her life forever.

Friends get together in a country house and reminisce about the "good old times." Some now have grown-up children who accompany them and life is different... or is it? The story unravels quite well with good dialog and superior acting from the entire cast. The movie is philosophical without being bogged down by the some times heavy content. A very refreshing look at life, getting old, being free and always finding ways to share, appreciate and enjoy.