The best Juan José Ballesta’s movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Juan José Ballesta’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Juan José Ballesta.
Gold
5.7/10
Spanish soldiers battle indigenous tribes and their own brutal natures as they search for a legendary city built of gold.
7 Virgins
6.3/10
Tano is 16-years-old and is already sitting in jail. In 48 hours he’s a free man and off to the wedding of his brother. In the two days he recounts his neighborhood in a section of Sevilla.
El Bola
7.3/10
El Bola is a 12-year-old boy raised in a violent and sordid environment. Embarrassed by his family life, he avoids becoming close to classmates. The arrival of a new boy at school changes his attitude towards his classmates and friendship. The heart of the story is the change in El Bola's life, at almost all levels, after befriending this new classmate.
Sexo en el plató
6.2/10
How are the sex scenes filmed? What tricks are used to fake the desire? How do the interpreters prepare and feel? Spanish actors and directors talk about the most intimate side of acting, about the tricks and work methods when narrating exposed sex. In Spain the general rule is that there are no rules. Each film, each interpreter, faces it in very different ways.
Among Wolves
6.6/10
Entre lobos (Among Wolves) tells the remarkable story of a poor country boy named Marcos, who at the age of 7 is handed over to his father's employer, a rich landowner, who in turn delivers him to a life of labor with a hermetic goatherd in an isolated valley. The old man, who lives in a cave, is unused to human company and at first seems not very interested in having a live-in apprentice. The boy, who was abused by his parents, is frightened and equally aloof initially. Despite this, the shepherd begins teaching Marcos how to herd the goats, as well as how to care for himself and how to survive in the wilderness by trapping and fishing.
Thieves
6/10
The main character is a nameless boy (Juan Jose Ballesta) who was taught to steal wallets by his absent mother. He is able to do the trick effortlessly, using his "earnings" to survive while he looks for his mom. As he runs into an antique store owner, he might have found a trace that will lead to her. First, however, he will have to pull off a few "jobs" for the store owner, and he can't do it alone: enter a nameless girl (Maria Valverde) who gets to learn all the secret techniques the young boy has been using all his life.
Lasting
5.1/10
Lasting is an emotional love story about Michał and Karina, a pair of Polish students who meet and fall in love with each other while working summer jobs in Spain. An unexpected nightmare brutally breaks into their carefree time in the heavenly landscape and throws their lives into chaos.
Spectre
5.7/10
After the sudden death of his wife, Tomás, a successful elderly writer who has been out of Spain during the last forty years, unexpectedly receives an old tarot card which seems to have for him a disturbing meaning, so he decides to return to the small village where he grew up.
Planta 4ª
6.9/10
Three friends in wheelchairs welcome a new patient at a children's hospital.
Growing up together. All emotions pass the revue. Friendship and hope survive all.
El asfalto
Between astonishment and despair, Baldo, a courier, sees how, slowly and inexorably, he sinks into the asphalt.
The Shanghai Spell
5.5/10
A fourteen year old lad discovers his first love at the point of his pencil whilst drawing the portrait of a sickly but coquettish fifteen year old girl. In the neighbourhood an old freedom-fighter pits himself against bad types, a pretty cinema-ticket girl takes to the streets at night and a young anarchist dedicates himself to telling tall stories. Far away, in Shanghai, a hero of the Republic meets a beautiful femme fatal with oriental eyes. Reality and fiction become fused in an embrace.
Bruc: The Manhunt
5.6/10
Spain, 1808. The Napoleonic Army suffers its first defeat at the hands of a single man: a drummer boy who used the Montserrat mountains to echo his drums and send the enemy troops into a panicked retreat. When the news reaches Napoleon, he furiously orders the captain of the Imperial Guard to bring back the head of the young hero responsible for his army's defeat…
Carol's Journey
6.7/10
Spain, 1938, during the Spanish Civil War. Carol, a 12-year-old Spanish-American girl, arrives in her mother's hometown and transforms the secretive family environment. Her innocence and rebellious nature drive her at first to reject a world that is at once foreign and completely new.
La casa de mi padre
5.6/10
A businessman returns his family home after eight years in exile avoiding the terrorism of the ETA.
Doghead
5.9/10
A drama about a boy who lives in a bubble because of a rare brain disease.
