07/04/2006

Benefiting from what could be called the “post-Malaga effect”, Spanish distributors continue to schedule their domestic releases for the first weeks of spring. After last Friday's DarkBlueAlmostBlack [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], it is now time for David Trueba's Welcome Home to hit local screens.

Picking up the Best Director Award in Malaga, Welcome Home is a plunge into a young couple's life, in which Eva and Samuel will put their relationship to the test from the moment they begin living together and he finds a job as a photographer at a magazine where everyone seems to be offbeat. Will their love survive the transition towards what is seemingly the ultimate proof of maturity: parenthood?

After Soldiers of Salamina, which screened at Cannes' sidebar section Un Certain Regard in 2002, Trueba was eager to change his tone. "[Soldados] was a film in which we spoke obsessively about the past", explained the screenwriter/director. "In this story, the future seems to be the real leading character".

Bringing together a cast that includes Joana La Loca, star Pilar López de Ayala, Alejo Sauras, Ariadna Gil, Juan Echanove and Concha Velasco, Welcome Home was shot in Madrid in the Summer of 2005, and produced by Fernando Trueba P.C. in collaboration with Películas Pendelton. Sogepac is handling theatrical distribution and international sales.

The two other local titles opening this Friday are Adán Aliaga's La casa de mi abuela (lit. “My Grandmother's House”), distributed by Sorolla Films, and the Spanish/Italian/UK co-production Tirante el Blanco by Vincente Aranda, released by DeAPlaneta.

Last weekend's box office was led by two sequels, Ice Age 2 and Basic Instinct 2, followed by the only Spanish title in the Top 5, Pedro Almodóvar's Volver [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile], which grossed €803,893 from 239 screens over the weekend, and gathered 143,772 admissions.