Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Lola Marceli | ... | Lola | |
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Alice Ansara | ... | Lucia |
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Lourdes Bartolomé | ... | Manola |
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Silvio Ofria | ... | Bruno |
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Simon Palomares | ... | Ricardo |
Helen Thomson | ... | Wendy | |
Gabriella Maselli | ... | Maria | |
Alex Dimitriades | ... | Stefano | |
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Armida Croccola | ... | Maria's Mother |
Steve Rodgers | ... | Teacher | |
Tony Barry | ... | Dr. Knuckey | |
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Bogdan Koca | ... | Polish Patient |
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Nino La Giudice | ... | Renato |
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John Barresi | ... | Antonio |
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Nic Gazzana | ... | Italian Patient (as Nico Gazzana) |
Lola, a hot-blooded Spaniard, is deserted by her husband for a cool and calculating Aussie blonde. Lola is pregnant again but she and their daughter Lucia are left to starve while Ricardo spends all their savings on a sleek new set of wheels for his mistress. When he dies unexpectedly the family fortune, one flash car, remains with the mistress. Despite all his betrayals, Lucia sides with her father. Desperate and destitute in a country she doesn't like or understand, Lola's quest for revenge begins. Caught in the tempests of begrudging love, revenge, sibling rivalry, jealousy and passion, fourteen year old Lucia must find the strength to survive on her own terms. Aided to break free of her mother by her eccentric Aunt Manolo she struggles to find her own identity and her own quest for justice puts her on a collision course with her mother. Written by Biff
Lucía is a 14-year-old girl living in Australia with her beautiful Spanish mother, Lola (the title refers to her and means "Spanish woman"), while her Italian father (named Ricardo) has run off with an Australian woman. Lola is a woman of fiery emotions, which she demonstrates very quickly by throwing herself on top of and then in front of the car as Ricardo attempts to drive off. She wants him back, or at least for him to pay her bills, and failing that she wants revenge. Lucía would just like a normal family and to spend time with the family chickens and the goat named Elvis.
That barely gives a hint of the flavor of the film, which is *very* quirky, often darkly humorous, and sometimes dramatic. I enjoyed individual bits (Lourdes Bartolomé steals the scenes she's in as Lucía's aunt Manola), but on the whole it didn't really work for me. Still, there's enough here to give it a mild recommendation.
This was Australia's nomination for the best foreign language film of 2001, which is an interesting concept in that Australia is an English speaking country, but this is in fact a foreign language film. It is currently playing in Europe, but the director (who was at the San Francisco International Film Festival screening where I saw it on 5/1/2002 to introduce it but not for questions) does not expect it to get distribution in the U.S.