Spanish film is funny and relatable

The hilarious Spanish language film, “Aquí Entre Nos,” drew a large crowd to the Cal State Long Beach University Theatre Thursday night.

The Film and Electronic Arts department presents the “Ties That Bind” Latin American Studies film series with a film every week this month. The film this week was “Aquí Entre Nos,” a film by Patricia Martínez de Velasco. The film was spoken in Spanish, but presented with English subtitles.

“Aquí Entre Nos,” translated as “Between Us,” in English, is a film about Rodolfo Guerra (Jesús Ochoa, “Get the Gringo”), a father of three daughters that decides not to go to work one morning. This act of breaking the family’s routine opens his eyes to his dysfunctional family.

The film won six awards, including the Bronze Zenith at the 2011 Montréal World Film Festival.

Martínez de Velasco’s film had a lot of humor with characters that were relatable and easy to care about. It was well made, especially for a film that was shot in only six weeks.

The chemistry between Ochoa and Carmen Beato, who played his wife Miriam, was fantastic. They felt like a genuine old fighting married couple.

Also, the symbolism with the house was great, specifically the roof. Through time, the family began to deteriorate, as the house got older. Rodolfo’s character began to fix the house as a symbolic attempt to fix the broken family.

After the screening, Martínez de Velasco had a question and answer session with the audience.

This is Martínez de Velasco’s first feature film. Her previous experiences were with shorts and documentaries.

Before putting this film into production, she had an opportunity to direct a short documentary, “Matilde Landeta.” She decided since the documentary was non-fiction, it couldn’t wait while her fiction film could.

“Aquí Entre Nos” started as a short film and evolved into a feature.

“You never finish writing a screenplay,” Martínez de Velasco said. “You continue to rewrite in the editing room.”

Martínez de Velasco also said that if she didn’t have a date in which she had to finish the film, then she is sure that she would still be rewriting the script.

Even watching the film at CSULB Thursday, she saw parts in the movie where she wanted to add another scene.

She said that the lead actor, Ochoa, was the first actor she chose for the role. She knocked on his door and offered it to him.

From there, Martínez de Velasco and Ochoa worked together to cast the rest of the characters. Working together helped them find the right actors with the right chemistry.

The first film screening of the “Ties that Bind” was considered successful.

“It was a hit with the crowd,” said Jack Anderson, assistant professor of the film department. “It’s very clean work,” he said.

Jerry Mosher, chair of the Film and Electronic Arts department, recognized the film series director, José Sánchez-H. as responsible for putting on the event.

“He really deserves a lot of credit,” Mosher said.

This is the first of four films this month for the film department’s “Ties that Bind” Latin American Studies Film Series, shown in the University Theatre every Thursday.

The department’s next feature film is “La Vida De Los Peces” which will be screened this Thursday.