The magical world of Oz returns with ‘Wicked’the most attractive title among the news on the week’s billboard, along with the Spanish-Moroccan thriller ‘Raqa’the real-life prostitution drama of ‘Station Girls’, and the horror of ‘The Night Watchman: Inherited Demons’.
‘Wicked’
The yellow brick road reappears in theaters with ‘Wicked’, the story of the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West, with a plot set long before Dorothy’s visit in the 20th century classic. In this prequel, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the future green-skinned witch, enters Shiz University, where, after suffering bullying from her classmates, she establishes a friendship with Glinda (Ariana Grande), who will become the Good Witch of the North. The cast is completed with actors of the stature of Jeff Goldblum, who plays the Wizard; Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible; Jonathan Bailey (‘The Bridgertons’) as Fiyero, and Peter Dinklage, who voices the character of Dr. Dillamond. This musical, derived from the 1939 original, will also have a second part, whose premiere is scheduled for 2025.
‘Raqa’
Double espionage story in the style of John Le Carré’s novels, with a plot set in Syria ravaged by the Islamic State, in a Spanish-Moroccan production directed by Gerardo Herrero (‘Malena is a tango name’), with Álvaro Morte (‘La casa de papel’) and Mina El Hammani (‘Elite’) in the leading roles. Haibala (Morte) is a international spy recruited to take down El Jordanoone of the most wanted ISIS leaders. At the same time, Malika (El Hammani), a nurse from Ceuta recruited by Europol, infiltrates the female environment of the terrorist organization, also with El Jordano as a target, both with a mission in the middle of a hostile and wild environment.
‘The Station Girls’
Jara, Álex and Miranda are three girls who have grown up in a juvenile center, without a family environment. The three companions decide to celebrate Jara’s birthday at a trap concert, for which they have no money. A former schoolmate gives them the idea of prostituting themselves in the bus station bathrooms to get money, which starts a spiral of self-destruction in their lives. Juana Macías (‘Pregnant’) directs this drama about marginality and machismo with Julieta Tobío, Salua Hadra and María Steelman in the roles of Jara, Álex and Miranda, respectively.
‘The Night Watchman: Inherited Demons’
Sequel to the 1994 Danish horror film ‘The Night Watchman’. In this installment, Emma, daughter of the watchman protagonist of the first installment, follows in her father’s footsteps and accepts the position of night watchman in a morgue, which she combines with her medical studies. It doesn’t take him long to discover what happened to his father when he worked there when he came across a serial killer who kills again. Ole Bornedal also writes and directs this second installment, with his daughter Fanny Bornedal in the role of Emma.
‘Borgo’
Melissa is a prison officer who, forced by small personal problems, decides to accept a transfer to a prison on the French island of Corsica. There, he establishes a cordial relationship with a young inmate belonging to the mafia, who proposes a logrolling: The inmate offers him protection in his new neighborhood in exchange for information about two people. Unknowingly, Melissa triggers the real double murder that shocked Corsica in 2017. Hafsia Herzi (‘You Deserve a Love’) plays Melissa, and Louis Memmi plays Saveriu Pietri, the young prisoner, in this film by Stéphane Demoustier (‘The Girl of the bracelet’).
‘The glass artist (The Glassworker)’
The film selected by Pakistan as a candidate for best foreign language film at the Oscars is an anime about Tomas, a master glass craftsman, and his son Vincent. Alliz, the daughter of a colonel and a young violinist, meets Vincent after being fascinated by his works and they begin a relationship. At the same time, Alliz’s father proposes to Tomas the manufacture of weapons, and after his categorical refusal, after several years, a dispute breaks out. inevitable war that threatens to destroy the city and the relationship between Alliz and Vincent.
‘A lifetime’
Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Seethaler, ‘A Whole Life’ tells the life experience of Andreas Egger since he was abandoned by his mother at the age of 4, his childhood with his uncle, his moments of happiness with his wife Marie, and the outbreak of World War II, which is a setback in his life. Stefan Gorski plays Egger in his youth, August Zirner in his old age and Ivan Gustafik in his childhood, with Julia Franz Richter in the role of Marie.
