"Actor: Txema Blasco"

• Vacas | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  With Vacas, his first feature, the Basque director Julio Medem set out all the elements of his audacious and idiosyncratic approach to filmmaking: intricate, circular plots; richly sensual imagery and highly stylised camerawork; a deft interweaving of fantasy and reality; and a thoroughly subversive attitude to Spanish tradition and folklore. Vacas takes a staple Spanish genre--the epic historical melodrama with all its bombast and macho posturing--and kicks the stuffing out of it while pelting it with cowpats. The action unrolls between two Spanish civil wars--the Second Carlist War of 1874-5, and the rather better-known conflict that started in 1936. An incident in the first of these sets up a feud between two farming families in a Basque valley, and the story leapfrogs down the decades taking in star-crossed lovers, log-chopping contests (a staple Basque competitive sport, it seems), mutilation, madness, incest, photography and any number of cows, through whose placidly bemused gaze we view a good deal of the action. Though Medem is dealing with all the solemn Hemingway-esque elements of romantic Spanishry--honour, blood and death--his approach is too playful to admit any real sense of tragedy. Much of the time the tone is closer to myth, and there's more than a touch of magic realism: axes fly miles through the air, and a tree in the woods can apparently eat people alive. In the end, of course, love triumphs over all. Medem's films have since gained greatly in sophistication and technique, but there's exuberance about this debut work that's irresistible. On the DVD: Vacas on disc has trailers for all five of Medem's features to date; filmographies for Medem and his two lead actors, Emma Suárez and Carmelo Gómez; and useful written notes on the movie by film historian Robert Stone. The transfer's clean and clear, doing justice to Carles Gusi's rich photography, with good sound and in the original ratio. --Philip Kemp

• The Julio Medem Collection Vol.1 | DVD | (26/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Vacas (1992): Director Julio Medem presents a saga spanning over half a century of the twisted goings on between two families in Northern Spain. Carmelo Gomez and Candido Uranga star as the fathers sons and grandsons locked through the ages in an absurdly stubborn and emotionally exhausting conflict. From the Carlist Wars of 1875 to the more famous Spanish Civil War of the thirties Vacas proves that sometimes there seems to be no escape from how family ties dictate our fate. Also starring Ana Torrent Emma Suarez and Pilar Bardem. The Red Squirrel (1992): 'The Red Squirrel' is an anti-macho parable by Spanish director Julio Medem; an intriguing story that draws its characters and audience into a complex game of lies and deceit it demonstrates the director's extraordinary and fresh visual style. Contemplating suicide as he stands against the parapet of a pier one summer night ex-pop star Jota (Nancho Nova) is interrupted by a sudden motorcycle crash. Rushing to the scene he discovers the biker to be a young attractive woman with amnesia (Emma Suarez). Masquerading as her boyfriend he names her Lisa invents a shared history for the two of them and whisks her off on a holiday to the Red Squirrel campsite. Here he reinforces his deception by parading the facade of their long-term relationship in front of other the campers. However it is not long before Jota has to confront the surprising consequences of his lie as there is more to Lisa than meets the eye... A film full of ingenious mesmerising and cryptic images The Red Squirrel made a huge impact at Cannes Film Festival in 1992. Tierra (1996): Angel an exterminator recently released from a mental hospital comes to rid a small Spanish town of tiny grubs in the soil. The local wine-making industry has found these pests responsible for giving their product an ""earthy"" taste that has divided local opinion. While in town Angel becomes involved with two beautiful and very different women and impacts their lives on a grand scale. Can either of these women accept the fact that Angel travels with a ""ghost"" of himself or that he routinely speaks with the deseased townspeople?