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Spanish cinema arrived today in the heart of Tokyo with the Latin Beat Film Festival, the main cinema showcase for Spanish and Latin American films in Japan, a country not accustomed to seeing films that arent Japanese or American.
This year, the festival opened with the Mexican film Arrancame la vida by Roberto Sneider, and Mentiras y gordas , by Spanish filmmakers Alfonso Albacete and David Menkes. The star of the latter, Ana De Armas, applauded the initiative of the 6th Latin Beat Film Festival and was "delighted" with the reception it has had in Japan. "Its very positive to have a festival which allows us to show our films in Japan and in a way that allows us to get to know this country," said Ana de Armas to the Efe news agency. Armas rose to fame in Spain thanks to the series El Internado.
The programme for the Tokyo event includes such films as the Argentine Leonera , the Spanish movies Camino and El truco del Manco , the Chilean La buena vida , the Mexican Los bastardos , Estomago from Brazil, the Cuban film Los dioses rotos , and the Puerto Rican Pedro.
Javier Fesser said he had "no idea" how Japanese audiences will respond to his film Camino , criticised by the Opus Dei Catholic religious organisation and winner of six Goya awards. "I would like to know the reaction. This film has many connotations which sometimes provoke prejudice. Here, such prejudices dont exist. So, the film viewer will see stories and the response is much more cinematographic in nature," said Fesser to Efe.
This year, as something new, the festival has a small section devoted to TV soap operas, showing episodes from the popular series Resistire andLos exitosos Pells, both of which are Argentine productions. "The people in this country really like soap operas and this is a way to familiarise audiences with those being made on the other side of the world," explained festival organiser Alberto Calero.
Since starting in 2003, with great effort and only two sponsors, Japans Latin film festival has grown in films, sponsors and audiences.
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