RITA (2024)
In her directorial debut, renowned Spanish actress Paz Vega (SEX AND LUCÍA) mines her own Andalusian childhood to tell the story of a young girl awakening to the dangers inside her own home. It is the summer of 1984 in Seville, the Spanish football team has advanced to the quarter finals of the European Championship and seven-year-old Rita (Sofía Allepuz) dreams of visiting the beach and escaping the scorching heat with her beloved younger brother Lolo (Alejandro Escamilla). But as her father’s (Roberto Álamo) verbal abuse toward their mother (Vega) flares and veers towards the physical, the siblings soon learn that this will be the last innocent summer of their lives. Set just four years after divorce was legalized in Spain’s nascent post-Franco democracy, this is an assured and sensitive portrayal of domestic violence as seen through the perspective of a child — quite literally, as Vega positions her camera at Rita’s eye level throughout the film. DIR/SCR Paz Vega; PROD Marta Velasco, Gonzalo Bendala. Spain, 2024, color, 94 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 94 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, May 31, 2025
Genre: Drama