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Bookmark this pageFading Memories (1999)
Director: Enrique Gabriel
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
After 20 years of exile in Argentina, journalist/poet Manuel (Luppi) returns to Spain to find his small town, Higueras, packing up in preparation for the flooding of the valley for a new reservoir. The difficult emotional and financial stocktaking undertaken by the town's inhabitants intensifies his own - not least in regard to his relationships with his dead brother's wife (an old flame), and idiosyncratic town elder Don José (Alterio). The film works familiar material to self-conscious effect. The excellent performances are undermined somewhat by over-emphatic and sometimes clumsy direction, with elements of farce or tragedy concerning minor characters reduced to histrionics. Undoubtedly a sincere lament for the abrogative effect on relationships and notions of belonging by change and the passage of time, but the poetry is missing and the emotions are stifled.Author: WH
Cast & crew
Director: Enrique Gabriel
Producer: Tomás Cimadevilla, Enrique González Macho
Cast: Federico Luppi, Mercedes Samprietro, Elena Anaya, Héctor Alterio, Asunción Balaguer, Mariví Bilbao, Armando Del Rio, Sergi Calleja full cast
Duration: 95 mins
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