(The Sun Also Rises, and It's No Small Feat)
Directed by José Luis Cuerda
110 minutes
In Spanish with English subtitles

Teodoro, an engineer who teaches at the University of Oklahoma, returns to his homeland of Spain with his father Jimmy on a motorcycle for a summer road trip. Their journey takes them to a strange village full of unusual phenomena they are utterly shocked by. These villagers are used to outrageous miracles occurring as common everyday events. They are also well-versed in Faulkner and Chekhov. The drunks of this small remote village seem to live in a parallel world based on different laws of physics. Grade-school classroom biology lessons are taught in the form of gospel choir. The local church is more Dada than it is secular.

This delirious world, seemingly suspended in both time and space and cut off from the rest of civilization, is conjured up by director José Luis Cuerda. Most earlier Spanish movies critical of society were based on drama and satire, but this one is fueled by absurdity. But despite its bizarre supernatural aspects, and all of the fantastic twists and turns, there is an essential fusion of life, death, religion, sex and magic in this offbeat village. When the movie comes to an end, you never want to leave this twilight zone that makes our modern world look utterly predictable and boring.

This will be a high-definition screening.