Murray State's Cinema International continues their Spanish-language film festival with La isla interior, or The Island Inside. Program director Dr. Thérèse St. Paul speaks with Tracy Ross about the upcoming screening of the dark psychodrama.
From Murray State's Cinema International website:
" "If you were able to imagine J. Joyce's The Fall of the House of Usher told through a series of paintings by Edward Hopper, the result might resemble The Island Inside." - RL PAÍS. A dark-hued family drama set in Spain's Canary Islands, The Island Inside relates the story of three siblings and their mother. The sudden death of their father forces them to leave the inner island that isolates them from their loved ones, from their dreams...and from being themselves.
With Pedro Almodovar as their cinematic godfather, the filmmaker duo Dunia Ayaso and Félix Sabroso deliver a superb haunting psychodrama with astounding performances by the best Spanish independent actors working today and a superb Geraldine Chaplin as the mother."
La isla interior is a "slow-burning, dark, huge family drama where nobody really has any redeeming qualities," St. Paul begins. "Everybody is really at each other's throat all the time. Somehow, as a protection, they have difficulty expressing love -- intimacy -- so it's very disturbing, in a way. There's always something of that in every family. It cuts a little close to the bone -- that makes it disturbing. There's no sadistic images [or] violence...at times, it's even funny. But it's a dark comedy."
The 2009 film highlights the complicated family dynamics that arise as three siblings work to fight off the "curse" inherited from their father: schizophrenia. "It's a family that basically wants to love each other...don't do a good job of it, but really, desperately want to. They have remorse for not being able to because they are dealing with people who have psychotic tendencies. How does one react? Who's to blame? Everybody's a bit to blame, or nobody's to blame -- it's just how you live it," St. Paul says.
The Island Inside will be presented in the Curris Center Theater on Thursday, September 10th, and Saturday, September 12th. Both screenings will be at 7:30 p.m. and are free to the public. Due to limited capacity, seats are first come, first serve. For more information, visit the Murray State website.
