A well balanced film, reflecting the reality of emigration for Spaniards. A light drama with touches of intelligent humour. A joy to watch, learn and have an occasional laugh. As a brit living in Spain for many years, it's wonderful to see how Spanish movies have evolved so well from the old "españoladas" (the local derogatory label for Spanish slapstick films), to intelligent and excellent quality jobs like this one. This was my second "adventure" with Carlos Iglesias, after watching his extremely humanistic "Ispansi" (Spanish refugees in Russia during the Spanish Civil War). I'm now looking forward to watching his latest production "¿Cómo está el Franco?".
... View MoreCrossing Borders... is A Spanish-Switzerland comedy released in 2006 that tells the story of two couples of Spanish immigrants in Switzerland in the 1950s based in the autobiographical experience of the actor and director Carlos Iglesias.This is a very sweet, funny, honest and intimate film about the lives of those Spaniards who migrated to Switzerland and other European countries in the 1950s and 1960s. It is faithful to real events, and shows the issues that affected those people when leaving their country, the pros and cons of being an Spanish emigrant, and of the country of origin and the country of reception. Especially good is the depiction of the feelings of alienation, loneliness, cultural and emotional isolation, distrust by the locals, but also how hard was going back home for those who decided to return and resettle.All the cast is good in their performances, especially Nieves de Medina as Pilar and Isabel Blanco as Hanna.The movie is unpretentious, talks about serious issues using comedy, and has heart. I think it will reach immigrants from any part of the world, but also any viewer wanting to see something different from Spain and about Spain recent history.
... View MoreIt was my first Spanish movie and I had no idea what to expect, but I'm so glad I chose it in the end, I found it so much more interesting and entertaining than the other movies i'm used to. I am definitely going to see if I can find some more of Carlos Iglesias - I absolutely loved him.A wonderful movie, beautifully filmed, with light yet very effective humour. The actors are simply perfect, the story flows at the right pace, and you enjoy the movie from beginning to end. Offers a great contrast between the lives of the Spanish and the swiss in the 1960's. A Spanish must-see.
... View MoreI've seen this movie during our last trip to Spain. My girlfriend and I we can feel very good into the characters of this brilliant movie, because our parents where immigrated to Austria and Switzerland during this period. Her parents come from Spain and my father is from Italy, my mother from Austria. I was born about 10 miles away from Schwellbrunn, where this movie was filmed. So it is not Uzwil, like people in the movie said. But anyway. This movie shows the same thing, that our parents' happened in such a funny and for the same time hard way, that everybody must see this movie. My Spanish (like my English) is very bad but a big part of the movie was in Swiss German. That's why I loved this movie. You can understand the most part of this movie, when you speak Swiss German! What I extremely love in this movie is the switch of languages. So as Martin said, that nobody is in the firm because they are at the party or exhibition with party (feria-Spanish) he explained it badly, then in Swiss German he said, they are in holidays (Ferien-Swiss German). Or another example was as Hannah said in her bad Italian, that it is on the upper-floor (sobre piano-Italian) Martin translated Marcos this as they have a piano left (piano-Spanish).So this movie is perfect for immigrants who understand a bit of Spanish and Swiss German. But also everybody else will love this movie.
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