After being asked to decide my five favorite Spanish films of the last 12 months for an International Film Guide, I realize with a shock that I haven’t seen two of them yet. This may sound paradoxical, but when buzz is strong – or when a film has won a prize at Cannes – it’s probably worth checking out to see whether, as it were, it’s one of my favorites, after all. So I quickly saw Isabel Coixet’s English-language My Life Without Me, about a young mother (Sarah Polley) who learns she’s going to die and makes a list of the things she wants to do before she goes. I snuffled (discreetly). Onto the list it goes. The other film is almost its pole opposite, emotionally – Jaime Rosales’ Las horas del día, about an inexpressive guy in Barcelona with a dull life who occasionally, and apparently out of nowhere, kills people. It’s oddly gripping, but the idea of it is better than the execution, which is probably why it won a critics prize at Cannes: critics like films where the idea is better than the execution. And I’m a critic, so on it goes. Here they are, then, in no particular order, the five favorites from the (seemingly) thousands (actually about 80) Spanish films I’ve seen over the last 12 months – remembering at all times that I don’t like lists. If any of the following are coming to a cinema near you... the Spanish cinema industry needs you.

My Life Without Me – Isabel Coixet
Les mains buides – Marc Recha
Las horas del día – Jaime Rosales
Soldados de Salamina – David Trueba
La vida mancha – Enrique Urbizu

The best bar none? Soldados de Salamina. Now, of course, I have that feeling that there must be one I’ve missed...
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