‘The King of Kings’, a blockbuster animated biblical film coming to theaters alongside ‘Frontera’

Madrid.- This week's releases bring a blockbuster animated film very suitable for the Christmas season, 'The King of Kings', which arrives in cinemas alongside Spanish proposals such as 'Frontera', a historical drama about the passage of Jewish refugees through the Pyrenees to escape the Nazis. 'The King of Kings', Biblical and Christmas animation This film arrives in Spanish cinemas after achieving the best opening in US history for an animated biblical film, in its original version with the voices of Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Pierce Brosnan, Roman Griffin Davis, Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley and Oscar Isaac. Directed by the Korean Seong-ho Jang, it features Charles Dickens as narrator and central character in the story, recounting the life of Jesus Christ to his son Walter as a bedtime story. Through imagination, the child walks alongside Jesus, in a story full of adventures, angels, evil kings, and miracles. 'Frontera', a historical drama set in the Pyrenees Catalan Judith Colell ('Elisa K') narrates the story of the 'passers' who helped around 80,000 people fleeing Nazism cross the Pyrenees between 1943 and 1945, on one of the so-called 'Freedom Routes', and how these refugees transform a small municipality in the Lerida region of Pallars, where the wounds of the Spanish Civil War were still open.

Starring Miki Esparbé, Bruna Cusí and Asier Etxeandia, among others. 'Roofman: A Thief on the Roof', Comedy and Romance American Derek Cianfrance ('Blue Valentine') directs a mix of comedy and romance with this peculiar true story of the delinquent Jeffrey Manchester, played by Channing Tatum ('Magic Mike'), alongside Kirsten Dunst ('The Power of the Dog'). Manchester robbed 45 McDonald’s, escaped from prison, lived for 6 months in a Toys ‘R’ Us and then tried to rebuild his life. 'El canto de las manos', María Valverde reflects Gustavo Dudamel The Madrid-born actress María Valverde steps behind the camera for the first time in this documentary in which, with her husband and musical director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Gustavo Dudamel, reflects that music, in her own words, has a transformative power. 'El canto de las manos' follows the preparation of the opera Fidelio, by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed for the first time in sign language. 'The Blue Path', the escape of an older woman Directed by Brazilian Gabriel Mascaro, who received the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 75th Berlinale and the Youth Jury Award for Best Film at the Seminci, the film is a critique of the hyper-productivity of capitalism and tells the story of Tereza (Denise Weinberg), a 77-year-old woman who flees through the Amazon after receiving official notification from the government to move to a remote retirement home. The cast is completed by Rodrigo Santoro (300´,Love Actually´).

‘Balearic’, Terror and Surrealism

Directed by Ion de Sosa ('Sacred Spirit'), in this horror film with surreal touches, some young people who have sneaked into the swimming pool of a luxurious house are attacked by three ferocious dogs that keep them prisoners. Meanwhile, some neighbors gather at a party in a nearby villa to celebrate the beginning of summer. In the cast, Lara Gallo, Elías Hwidar, Ada Tormo and Christina Rosenvinge. 'Aro berria', Tantric Community in 1970s Navarre Irati Gorostidi documents from fiction in 'Aro berria', her debut film, the tantric community Arco Iris, an isolated collective in the Navarran mountains in the late 70s, where dozens of young people, including the director's parents, undertook an intense search through shared cathartic experiences. 'Life Outside,' a Drama About Goliarda Sapienza Starring Valeria Golino ('Rain Man'), Matilda de Angelis ('Dracula: A Love Tale') and Italian singer and actress Elodie, this film directed by Mario Martone ('Nostalgia') is the cinematic adaptation of Goliarda Sapienza's autobiographical novel 'L'università di Rebibbia', from 1983. The author was an actress, writer, self-taught thinker, and a voice ahead of her time. Marginalized for years due to her literary audacity and feminist commitment, her legacy has gained increasing relevance in recent decades, becoming a symbol of resistance and creative freedom. 'Fragments', couples looking in the mirror A couple in their thirties (Manuel Vega and Asia Ortega) and another in their fifties (Emma Suárez and José Luis García Pérez) function as facing mirrors in this film shot in Lanzarote and directed by the Mexican Horacio Alcalá ('Finlandia') in which it is discovered that neither time nor experience guarantee knowing how to love better. 'Queer Me', documentary about the transfeminist movement Irene Bailo Carramiñana directs and stars in this documentary in which she reflects on everything from her first teenage loves to the discovery of the queer community in Toulouse. Irene explores her relationship with social norms and those of the collective itself in this vital, political, and generational journey that, through archive material, personal memories, and current documentary footage, constructs an intimate and collective view of the transfeminist movement from the squatted house TDB.

‘Kontinental ’25’, Political Satire by Romanian Radu Jude

This political satire, filmed in 10 days with a mobile phone by Romanian director Radu Jude ('Do not expect too much from the end of the world') due to lack of funding, was recognized with the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the last Berlinale. It tells the story of how Orsolya, a bailiff in Cluj (Transylvania), will have to face a moral dilemma after evicting a man who lives in a basement that is going to become a luxury hotel.

'The Mysterious Tales of the Apple Tree', Czech Animation In this film, three children, Tom, Susan, and Derek, spend the night at their grandfather's house. To fill the silence after the loss of their beloved grandmother, the family's storyteller, the little ones create their own stories and discover the power of imagination.