Las Peliculas Mejores del Verano

This summer I have watched a lot of really excellent films. Some of which with my host family and others with my friends or in the FSD office.

La Mala Educación

This a classic Almodóvar film, with a host of complexities of identity and really wonderful character development. The film follows a boy who is sexually abused in his youth and grapples with this abuse as he transitions to female later in life. His brother and his ex-lover play intricate roles in his development, as a film about the little boy's life is produced within film.

Ciudad de Dios 

 This is a Brazilian film about a specific flavella in Rio (called City of God). The film is really beautifully shot, although it is extremely violent. Somehow intermixed with the violence, the film manages to pretty fully develop its characters. I finished the film with a lot of questions and some confusion, but overall the it's a really powerful piece.

El Piel Que Habito

Another Almodóvar film that is absolutely stunning. The acting is fantastic. The film follows a man who we find out via flashbacks has lost both his wife and child to suicide related to traumatic life experiences. The man is a surgeon and a chemist and starts to experiment with the re-creation of skin. He manages to transform an unlikely person into a mirror image of his wife and then... dun dun dun. Watch it!