También la lluvia

Icair Bollain is probably the best Spanish director right now. Forget Almodóvar. Her 2011 movie "Even the Rain" is about a group of Spaniards shooting a film in Bolivia about Christopher Columbus, using Bolivian Indians in place of the Caribbean ones Columbus encountered. The Spaniards are idealistic about their political message, but impatient with their indigenous actors. The star Indian actor, Daniel, is also a leader of a protest movement, and the cynical producer, Costa (Luis Tovar) keeps trying to keep him out of jail. The director, Sebastián, is more idealistic, but in the end the roles are reversed and the idealistic one turns out to be selfish and short-sighted.

Some very good play-within-the play metafilmic stuff, done in a very unclichéd way. The actors in Sebastián's film take on the positions of the characters they play, for example. This is by far the best movie I've seen all summer. It faces political issues honestly but never feels manipulative or preachy. If you see it and don't like it I'll give you a year's free subscription to Bemsha Swing.