(Almost) free live music and stuff, May 2026

Some stuff that I saw in Vitoria, Santander, Torrelavega and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

• 9 May: «Cenizas de Oro» @ Centro Cívico Langraiz-Oka, Tres de Marzo Parkea, 1, Nanclares de la Oca / Langraiz Oka
  A comedy by the amateur theatre group No Me Claves Tus Puñales. Not exactly free as €2 donation (for an NGO to be determined) was requested, but quite worth it.

  

• 15 May: Cantabria en Corto 2025 @ Filmoteca de Cantabria Mario Camus, Calle Bonifaz, 6, Santander
  The programme included Relato del niño que estuvo allí by Sergio Ruiz García; Solo es cuestión de tiempo by Carlos Martínez Pérez; “Solo los muertos se quedan by Alejandro Renedo; Una playa by Juan Carlos Cabañas Soto and Luis Paredes; Instrucciones para quedarse by Caque Trueba; and Wounded Light by Abril Catalina Beascoechea.

  

• 16 May: V Raw Market @ Plaza Mayor, Torrelavega
  Organised by Escuela de Arte Roberto Orallo (Puente San Miguel, Cantabria), this annual event allows the students of the school to present and market the work created during their training. The highlight was a concert of Cantabrian rock band The Haze.

  

• 24 May: Ajódar Poetry Jazz @ Sala Faro, Calle Concejal Manuel Rodríguez Costas, 1, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  The only event of the Deriva Jazz Timur and I attended. We were not impressed. Ajódar Duo, whose members did not bother to introduce themselves, played some jazz (badly) and recited some poetry (worse). On the brighter note, we have discovered a new venue in just a five-minute walk from us.
• 26 May: «Gran poder a de mandar o mar et todo los ventos» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Dedicated to the quincentenary of the death of Elcano, this concert featured “music around the Iberian circumnavigation routes”. Pedro Bonet employed 14 different recorders — copies of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque models — to play a bedazzling array of works composed and/or collected by Alfonso X el Sabio, Diego Ortiz, Pieter de Vois, Thomas Edward Bowdich, Hans Sloane, Joseph-Marie Amiot, William Hamilton Bird and many others. Part of the cycle Música Antigua en el Patio.

  

• 28 May: «Tiempo de Zafra» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  La Banda Sinfónica de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria featuring Domingo Luis Rodríguez Oramas “El Colorao” on timple and voices of Tania Gil and Pedro Manuel Afonso. The concert included a performance of Zafra, a work for timple and symphony orchestra composed by Laura Vega.

  

And exhibitions:

• 7—31 May: «Color, memoria y gesto» @ Sala de Exposiciones Mauro Muriedas, Calle Pedro Alonso Revuelta, 5, Torrelavega
  Works by Débora Regalado and Alejandro Mesurado.

  

• 8 May — 5 July: «Wetlands» @ El Palacete del Embarcadero, Muelle de Calderón, Santander
  Works by Paula Santomé.

  

Goodbye, May.

Höstsonaten

a film by Ingmar Bergman

Bergman’s last cinematic work, starring Ingrid Bergman (no relation) in her final cinema performance, alongside Liv Ullmann. Intense, at times uncomfortable, at times depressing, but not without comic elements courtesy of Ingrid’s vain character, Charlotte.

HLM Pussy

a film by Nora el Hourch

Don’t get deterred by its bland, politically correct English title Sisterhood: this is a high-octane thriller drama starring Leah Aubert as Amina, Médina Diarra as Djeneba and Salma Takaline as Zineb. The HLM of the original title stands for habitation à loyer modéré, a form of social housing in France. Featuring a fragment of the performance Un violador en tu camino by LASTESIS.

La Grande Vadrouille

a film by Gérard Oury

As Большая прогулка, this WWII comedy starring Bourvil and Louis de Funès was both widely screened and wildly popular in the Soviet Union. Yet somehow I’ve never watched it before. And now I did, thanks to Filmoteca de Cantabria, with collaboration of the Alliance Française de Santander and Institut Français de Bilbao.

Drylongso

a film by Cauleen Smith

Another happy discovery: this lost and found (and restored) gem of a movie starring Toby Smith, April Barnett and Will Power. As far as I know, Drylongso is (so far) the only feature film by Cauleen Smith.

Scener ur ett äktenskap

a film by Ingmar Bergman

I had a dilemma: either to rush after work to watch almost three hours of Scenes from a Marriage, with a distinct possibility to fall asleep, or to give it a pass and just have a proper nap. As you may have guessed, my craving for cinema won.

This 1974 film is a theatrical release of a 1973 miniseries of the same name. If the first chapter/episode has a rather extended cast, by Bergman standards anyway, in the last four chapters “only” the protagonists, portrayed by Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, remain. It’s long but never boring, and even has a kind of wabey-sabey happy ending: Marianne and Johan evolve from meh spouses to pretty good lovers.

El Eco

a film by Tatiana Huezo

Not much happens in the Pueblan village El Eco. The only event of note is the death of the granny, “the first woman to arrive in El Eco”, and even that was expected all along. And yet it’s probably the most engrossing documentary I watched this year. Magic is everywhere: it wouldn’t surprise me if that galloping horse took off to the sky, together with her teenage rider. The children of the village are adorable, especially the teacher girl.

This film closed the VIII cycle of documental film «Miradas Globales».

Les Filles d’Olfa / بنات ألفة

a film by Kaouther Ben Hania

This docu-fiction reconstructs the story of the two teenage Tunisians who left their family to join ISIS. Featuring Olfa and her two younger daughters, Eya and Tayssir. The eldest daughters, Ghofrane and Rahma, those “devoured by the wolf”, are portrayed by Ichraq Matar and Nour Karoui, respectively; Hend Sabry plays a younger Olfa.

This film opened the VIII cycle of documental film «Miradas Globales» organised by La Asociación Cultural La Llave Azul.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

a film by John Cassavetes

This 1976 cult film starring Ben Gazzara is quite unlike any other film by Cassavetes that I’ve seen so far. Then agan, any Cassavetes film that I’ve seen so far is unlike any other Cassavetes film I’ve seen so far.

Daughters of the Dust

a film by Julie Dash
music by John Barnes

Strange, beautiful, confusing and compelling, Daughters of the Dust is quite unlike of any film I’ve seen. I have to confess that I wasn’t quite able to follow its meandering in circles plot, dozing off on acouple of occasions — or maybe more, as on waking up to another déjà vu made me unsure if I was really awake. So more reasons to watch it again.

Viskningar och rop

a film by Ingmar Bergman

How come I never watched Cries and Whispers before? This almost unbearably stylish film centers on four women, gorgeously portrayed by Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin and, of course, Liv Ullmann. On the contary, the men, even David (the great Erland Josephson), are entirely disposable.

As Neves

a film by Sonia Méndez

Kids nowadays.

No, not really. They ain’t any different from us when we were their age. And from our parents, etc. You’ve got your whole life in front of you, and you’re dead bored. Epecially when you are growing up in a rural village in the middle of nowhere, no matter how beautiful. As Neves, for example. So, alcohol, drugs, and sex, if you’re lucky.

Not that the events of this film would be much different if the protagonists were adults. As if grown-ups don’t consume magic mushrooms or engage in revenge porn.

Still, I think that Sonia Méndez was right to shoot a teen drama. The young non-professional actors are utterly convincing and As Neves is worth watching for them alone.

Still Alice

a film by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland

This powerful and touching drama was shown in Filmoteca de Cantabria Mario Camus as a part of III Jornada de Cine y Enfermedad Avanzada organised by the Hospital Santa Clotilde. I loved most of it, bar the predictably embarrassing finale of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (really, why?!). Starring Julianne Moore in her Oscar-winning role, Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart.

A Child Is Waiting

a film by John Cassavetes

This woefully underrated 1963 masterpiece, inexplicably rendered in Spanish as Ángeles sin paraíso, was screened as a part of the cycle Puntos de fuga. Starring Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Gena Rowlands, Steven Hill and Bruce Ritchey as Reuben.

La Singla

a film by Paloma Zapata

The fictional journalist Elena (Helena Kaittani) is looking for a trace of Antoñita Singla, a deaf bailaora famous in 1960s. According to Kaittani, her personage is based on the film’s director, Paloma Zapata. The investigation of Elena is much more believable than that of Jeff Harris in They Shot the Piano Player. But did La Singla really disappear only to be found by the film creators through, wait a minute, the car dealer Singlauto? I don’t think so. For example, a 2017 article mentions matter-of-factly that La Singla has retired from dancing but is very much alive.

Never mind that. The movie is gripping. At least it was for me. And, thanks to it, I discovered an amazing flamenco dancer.

Sur l’Adamant

a film by Nicolas Philibert

A heart-warming documentary portraying the daily lives of the inhabitants of L’Adamant, a floating mental health centre on the Seine in Paris.

L’Incroyable Histoire du facteur Cheval

a film by Nils Tavernier

L’Incroyable Histoire du facteur Cheval is, indeed, so incredible, and also so tragic, that it could only have been a true story. Starring Jacques Gamblin as postman Cheval, Laetitia Casta as Philomène and Zélie Rixhon as their daughter Alice. Get out your hankies.

Tren de sombras

a film by José Luis Guerín

A silent film that is never silent. What starts like an innocent amateur family footage from 1930 develops into something way more mysterious, even sinister. (Closer to the end, we’ll see a bit of a remake in colour.) There are connotations of Antonioni’s Blow-Up; long shots à la Tarkovsky bring almost unbearable tension. And the enigma remains unsolved. A 1997 masterpiece that I’ve never heard about.

Gagarine

a film by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh

Yuri (Alséni Bathily), together with his friends Diana (Lyna Khoudri) and Houssam (Jamil McCraven), are trying to save their home, Cité Gagarine, from demolition. A heartwarming debut feature by Liatard and Trouilh, also starring Finnegan Oldfield as Dali. Watch it.

A beautiful theme song, Ya Tara by Amine Bouhafa, is performed by Lena Chamamyan.

Madame X — Eine absolute Herrscherin

a film by Tabea Blumenschein and Ulrike Ottinger

There are only two user reviews of this absurdist comedy on IMDb: one reviewer gave Madame X nothing, another 10/10. I found the opening collection of Pythonesque sketches the most entertaining. At 147 minutes, however, it’s way too long and repetitive for the message. In the version screened at Filmoteca, the German dialogue was subtitled while the English one was not; no wonder some people have left half-way through. Then again, when it’s cold and wet outside, I can think of worse options than sitting in a warm cinema, wondering what a lesbian pirate ship’s weird crew will do next.