In a previous article, I suggested five books written in Spanish to indulge in your Spanish language interest. In this article, I have 6 movies or TV series to put your listening skills into practice.
“It’s funny how the colours of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen.”
― Anthony Burgess,
Leaving the language angle aside, movies in the target language, set in the target language culture, are the best way to understand the mindset while having some pleasure (if you like the genre and the story). Because learning doesn’t need to be boring or hard, that’s a misconception. Learning comes from discipline, but it has to be rooted in meaning and pleasure. Movies give us meaning, pleasure and stories in about 2 hours. And our brains like nothing more than a good story.
I said six movies, but the truth is that I have seven movies and one TV series that I absolutely loved. Of course, Netflix is riddled with movies and TV series in the Spanish language set in Spanish speaking countries with a wide range of themes and, it has to be said, quality. These suggestions are only my personal choices.
You might notice a certain heaviness in themes, and that is because, for me, while I love the dark, heavy dramas and thrillers (from crime to drama to horror (gosh, we have such good Spanish horrors!), I am not a big fan of comedy and even less, of that kind of comedy that makes fun of the worst of the Spanish culture, also known as “españolada”. These are not my thing, although they are a great way to know Spain and Spanish culture. But you won’t see this here, and I am here not to reinforce stereotypes.
Let’s start with a trilogy that I adored so much that I created a conversation course based on it last year.
La Trilogía del Baztán
El guardían invisible, El legado en los huesos and Ofrenda a la tormenta.
This trilogy is based on Dolores Redondo’s books by the same names, and they depict beautifully Basque culture, folklore and mythology. Nature is one character more in this thriller based on a real story bringing questions about motherhood, cults, evil and myth in modern society.
A killer at large in a remote Basque Country valley, a female detective, Amaia Salazar, is torn between the rational, procedural part of her job and local myths and superstitions. She has to fight off the demons of her past in order to confront the reality of a serial killer at loose in a region steeped in the history of the Spanish Inquisition.
Myth versus reality, masterful storytelling.
I have created a watching guide if you are interested.
El Hoyo
Amazing movie.
Thought-provoking.
El Hoyo, which you can find in Netflix under The Platform, is a social science-fiction horror. I am not a huge fan of science-fiction, but this movie doesn’t fit your science-fiction, in my opinion. It’s more like a dystopian fiction that relates to social classes and vertical mobility.
Let me share with you a review I read in Wikipedia that I think summarizes wonderfully the movie: “has everything: low comedy, political allegory, left-field twists, crowd-pleasing surprises, spectacular violence, sadism, altruism, and yet more spectacular violence, all wrapped up in a high-concept horror film that moves the premise of Cube into a merciless vertical structure. It’s grotesque and compelling, like grindhouse [Luis] Buñuel. And it never blinks.”
El Autor
El autor, translated as The Motive in Netflix, was an absolute pleasure to watch. It is a dark comedy about an aspiring writer who has no imagination for his novel and is obsessed with the idea of “high-literature”, seeks inspiration from his neighbours manipulating theirs lives so that he can write about them—a story written by Manuel Martín Cuenca that will keep you in suspense throughout.
El desorden que dejas
El desorden que dejas is the last TV series in Spanish I watched, and I have to say that it brought memories of my first years of teaching. I could connect so much with the main character, a Spanish literature teacher in high school (have I ever told you that my dream was to become a Spanish literature professor? I almost got there, but the educational system broke my heart while I got my PhD in Spanish Scenery Arts, but this is another story for another day).
Anyway, El desorden que dejas (The mess you leave behind), also based in a book by Carlos Montero narrates Raquel’s efforts to unravel the truth behind what she thinks is cold-blooded murder. From her classroom experiences and the student’s stories to the bigger story underneath the murder, this mini TV series is a delight to watch.
El bar
El bar is the only one in this lists that verges on dark comedy, “españolada” style, but it’s not quite there.
Halfway between dark comedy and thriller, The Bar, directed by Álex de la Iglesia is set in Madrid where a group of strangers is holed up in a bar after witnessing a murder. Expect tension and the occasional laugh. This movie shows human interactions at its most primal and survival-oriented.
La enfermedad del domingo
The latest addition to this list, La enfermedad del domingo.
A beautiful mother-daughter drama about abandonment and resentment, mother nature and question that is not unveiled until the end. Beautiful and primal, this slow-paced movie has little but meaningful dialogue.
I am still digesting this movie because, as it always happens with good stories, they linger softly in your heart as it relates to the complexity of human nature once again.
Here you have it; these are my latest favourite movies (and TV series) in Spanish available on Netflix.
Do you have any other suggestions? Let us know in the comments!
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