Bollaín’s Even the Rain joins Oscar race

by Sergio Ríos Pérez

29/09/2010 - Even the Rain [trailer, film focus] will represent Spain in the nomination race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. This was decided yesterday by Film Academy members, who chose Icíar Bollaín’s film over Daniel Monzón’s Cell 211 [trailer, film focus] and Andrucha Waddington’s Lope [trailer].

It will also be the first time that a film directed by a woman competes on behalf of Spain for the coveted statuette. Bollaín hopes this signals "a normalisation of women’s presence in all the top positions in cinema".

Even the Rain was produced by Juan Gordon for Spanish companies Morena Films and Vaca Films in co-production with France’s Mandarin Cinema and Mexico’s Alebrije Cine and Video.

The film has many strong points, in particular its cast (headed by Luis Tosar and Gael García Bernal) and its script, penned by Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty (regular collaborator of Ken Loach, with whom he has worked on films including The Wind that Shakes the Barley [trailer, film focus], My Name Is Joe and Carla’s Song).

Even the Rain, which verges on social criticism, revolves around a film within a film, for the story centres on a production team who are shooting a movie about the Spanish Conquest of America in Bolivia. While there, they get caught up in the Water War which took place in the city of Cochabamba in 2000, in protest against the privatisation of the water system.

Meanwhile, Mexico has selected Alejandro González Inárritu’s Mexican/Spanish co-production Biutiful [trailer] (produced by Mod Producciones and starring Javier Bardem) as its representative in the Oscar race.

(Translated from Spanish)