MEXICO
LEAP YEAR [Año bisiesto]

Director Michael Rowe won the Camera d'Or for Best First Feature at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival with this intense psychological portrait of urban alienation, mania and masochism. Laura (BABEL's Monica del Carmen) brings home a succession of men to her tiny Mexico City apartment, with whom she has passionless flings. Apparently friendless and only intermittently employed, Laura describes a far different life to her family back home--one that she lives only in her imagination. One night Laura meets Arturo (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), and the two begin an intense, passionate relationship that blends pain and violence with pleasure. Despite the sensationalism surrounding the film's sexual content, it displays a subtle wit, moments of surprising humor and a narrative that builds to a genuine catharsis.

DIR/SCR Michael Rowe; SCR Lucia Carreras; PROD Edher Campos, Luis Salinas. Mexico, 2010, color, 94 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED

Fri, Oct 1, 10:45; Sat, Oct 2, 10:45