The 10 Best Spanish Movies of 2022: Spanish movies have a long and varied history because people and cultures in different parts of the same country have their own unique traits. But when you think of Spanish movies in general, you probably think of the strange dramas of Pedro Almodóvar or the crazy, twisted thrillers of modern superstar Oriol Paulo. This makes sense, given how easy it is to find these movies.
But when I was asked to choose the ten best Spanish movies from the year 2022, I planned to look for movies that were different from the usual ones. I wanted you to know about movies that explore culture and talk about important social issues while still being good movies. Keeping all of this in mind, I made a list of movies that tell stories about being a parent, xenophobia, repressed sexuality, class differences, and so many other real-world issues. What I want to do here is get you, the readers who like movies, to be interested in the rich cultural pool that is Spanish film. But if you are curious, the most recent Oriol Paulo is also on the list. So here you go!
Alcarrás
Alcarrás, which is also on the list, is named after the place where it takes place. The rural drama, which is now its own subgenre, is about Quimet, a middle-aged peach farmer who lives with his family and whose life is all about picking and selling peaches. Some African immigrants who work for the family also do family work. But their way of life is in danger when the land’s original owner decides to build a solar farm on the same land. This means that the peach trees will have to be uprooted. Quimet fights with his brother-in-law, who is on the landowner’s side and wants to work at the solar farm.
One of the best things about Alcarrás is that director Carla Simón chose to use a lot of amateur actors. Because of this, it has a very beautiful, natural feeling that people can feel when they watch it. There is a lot of chattering, barking, and packing going on, which is what you would expect on a farm, and Simón has done a great job of showing that.
Alcarrás made history at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival by being the first Catalan-language film to win the Golden Bear, the top prize for a feature film. It was Spain’s choice for “Best International Feature Film” at the upcoming Academy Awards, but it didn’t make the final list of five films.
Cork
Cork is a rural drama movie that takes place in rural Catalonia. In its original language, it was called “Suro.” Cork is Mikel Gurrea’s first time directing a movie. It’s about a young couple, Elena (Vicky Luengo) and van (Pól Lopez), who are both architects and move to a small town in Catalonia to run a cork plantation they inherited.
The two main characters have different ideas about what is right and wrong. When they arrive, it causes a panic among the local and immigrant cork workers, which makes the situation even worse. A rift starts between the two groups, which eventually becomes the movie’s main plot point.
The screenplay was written by Argentinian writer Francisco Kosterlitz and Guerra himself. It has gotten a lot of praise for the way it deals with issues like how a deep-rooted social order is threatened by a new order in the form of outsiders and how racism and capitalism affect society. It is still a very personal story, both from the point of view of the two main characters and of the director. “Cork” was in the running for the Golden shell award at the San Sebastian Film Festival. It has been called a standout because of its mature plot and very relevant story.
God’s Crooked Lines
God’s Crooked Lines is Oriol Paulo’s first movie in four years. He is one of the most well-known Spanish directors of our time. As you might expect, he hit the mark again. After making its debut at the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, the psychological thriller got six nominations for the 37th Goya award, including one for Barbára Lennie for best leading actress and one for an adapted screenplay.
Paulo’s new movie has all the things that have made him famous: a fast-paced plot, a mysterious world, and twists that we don’t really see coming. God’s Crooked Lines is based on the same-named 1979 novel by Paulo and Guillem Clua. It is about a private investigator, Alice (played by Lennie), who goes into the psychiatric ward of a facility to look into a mysterious death that happened in the same facility.
But since it’s a Paulo movie, there’s also a separate timeline in which a fire, a riot, and the discovery of a dead body happen. You have to see the movie to understand what that means, though.
LA Maternal
Carla, who is only 14, gets pregnant and is sent to a center for teenage mothers. There, she meets Raki, Estel, Claudia, Jamila, and Sheila, and they become close friends. This is the basic plot of Pilar Palomero’s latest drama, La Maternal, which means “Motherhood” in Spanish and also has that name in English.
Even though the story is similar to that of the 2007 movie Juno, starring Elliot Paige, “La Maternal” stands on its own because Palomero made the creative choice to show the teen drama from a very realistic and not at all sentimental point of view. The movie also has a similar theme to “Schoolgirl,” Palomero’s first film as a director, which was also about women sticking together.
In “La Maternal,” Carla’s strained relationship with her daughter Penélope has a parallel story arc that is just as important as the main plot. The fact that Palemoro’s main character isn’t very likeable, which goes against the usual tropes, is another creative choice that helps the movie. Carla Qulez, who has the same name as the main character, also did a great job as the main character.
Lullaby
In Lullaby, a new mom has trouble balancing being a mom and working, so she goes to her parents for help. Let me start by saying that I didn’t plan to put two movies about parenting or motherhood on the same list, but “Lullaby,” which is the first film by Alauda Ruiz de Aza, deserves to be here.
When Amaia and Javi have their first child, Koldo and Begoa, the mother’s parents, help them out at first. But when they leave, it’s hard for the parents to handle being parents. This gets worse when Javi has to go away for a week for work. Amaia moves in with her parents because she can’t do anything else. Unfortunately, Begoa gets sick by accident, leaving the mother and daughter to take care of things on their own. The movie shows how hard it is for mothers when their children’s fathers aren’t around. It also shows how hard it is for mothers when their children’s fathers aren’t around.
“Lullaby” was first shown at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section. Laia Costa, who has been in many American movies and TV shows, played the lead role. The interesting and emotionally powerful mother-daughter drama has since gotten a lot of praise from critics, which it deserves.
Manticore
Carlos Vermut wrote and directed Manticore, which is a strange story about a successful video game designer named Julián. After saving a boy named Cristian from a fire and becoming friends with him, Julián becomes strangely obsessed with him. Julián ends up in a relationship with Diana, an art history student, to keep his dark feelings about Cristian in check. But that doesn’t work out the way Julián thought it would, and the rest of the movie is about how he tries to get out of the mess he’s in.
The movie was shown for the first time at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival. It has been talked about a lot, especially because it has elements of tragedy, mumblecore (a subgenre of independent film where a lot of scenes and dialogue are made up on the spot), and Hamartia (a bad trait of a protagonist who is going downhill). People have used words like “brutal” and “unflinching” to describe the movie, but its main love story has also gotten a lot of praise.
Manticore deserved to be recognized at the 37th Goya Awards, where it was nominated in four categories: best director, best original screenplay, best actor (Nacho Sánchez), and best new actress (Zoe Stein, who played Julián and Diana).
Piggy
“Piggy” (Cerdita), Carlota Perada’s first feature film, is based on her own critically acclaimed short of the same name. It is a great story about a lot of different things. Piggy is a brilliant mix of different genres. It is a coming-of-age story, a body horror, and a slasher. But what’s most important is that it’s a feminist movie that takes a strong stand against a lot of bad things in society without ever being preachy.
Piggy is set in a small town and follows an overweight teen named Sara through an eventful summer. Other girls her age pick on her, but the story takes an unexpected turn when she sees a mysterious stranger take her bullies. This puts her in a difficult situation. The most important part of this story is what Sara does next.
Critics have given Perada a lot of praise for how she deals with things like body shaming, sexual awakening, teenage angst, and the hatred that comes from all of these things. Laura Galán has also gotten a lot of praise, and rightly so, for how interesting she was as the troubled Sara.
The Beasts
As luck would have it, my top pick on the list is mostly a movie about a couple who moves to a rural area and upsets the locals. “Cork,” another movie on the list, might remind you of this.
But what makes Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s movie stand out is how it deals with and pays close attention to transnational xenophobia. In the movie, Antoine (played by Denis Menochet) and Olga (Marina Fois), a mild-mannered, well-meaning middle-aged French couple, move to the Galician countryside to live an eco-friendly, peaceful life. But the fact that they voted against building a wind farm brings two brothers, Xan and Lorenzo, to cause trouble in their paradise. The main reason for this is that the brother wants to leave the same place and have a better life, which starts with the farm’s potential for making money.
Eventually, the couple and the two local brothers get into a nasty fight, and the couple has a hard time standing up to the brothers, who are very rude and quick to anger. Even though they are nice to everyone, they get a lot of hostility from the people who live there just because they are not from there. The main theme of this suspenseful thriller is not being friendly to people from other countries. At the start of 2023, when we are talking about the same thing, no other movie seems more relevant than this one.
To Books and Woman I Sing
“To Books and Woman I Sing” is Mara Elorza’s first full-length film. She has already made a number of exciting short films. The movie is a mix of documentary and fiction, and Elorza won the Youth Award at the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival (in the section for new directors) for it. It is based on the novel idea that we tell stories to get through our lives.
As you might expect, Elorza’s movie is mostly about books and literature in a broader sense. Her true love of literature shines through in the stories she tells, in which women tell their own stories. One of the women used to keep a library in the back seat of her car. Someone else thinks of a poem while ironing. All of the stories are about books or a certain piece of writing, and every memory has something to do with that. But most of all, the movie ends up being a reflection of different kinds of life. It is Elorza’s honest, passionate tribute to art, and everyone should see it.
The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring is about something as serious as sexuality, but instead of telling the story in a serious way, it gives it a unique, funny twist. But that just makes the movie more interesting for the people watching it.
Fernando Franco, who won the prestigious Goya award for best new director in 2013 for his film “Wounded,” is in charge of the movie. It’s about Laura, a woman from a traditional family who moves to Madrid to study chemistry. In Madrid, Laura meets Isabel, the boy’s mother, and David, who has cerebral palsy. When Laura and Isabel become friends, the plot gets more complicated because Laura then helps David masturbate in exchange for money.
The basic plot sounds strange on paper, but Franco’s careful and loving handling of it is what makes the movie what it is. Valèria Sorolla, who played Laura, Telmo Irureta, who played David, and Emma Suárez, who played Isabel, all did great jobs. In general, almost every critic has said good things about the movie. “The Rite of Spring” is much more accessible to the audience than Franco’s first movie “Wounded” or his second movie “Dying” (2017), which were both artistically great but didn’t do well at the box office.
