Cineteca Madrid opens October with the filmography of Raúl Ruiz and the celebration of Spanish Cinema Day

• On Spanish Cinema Day, two restored classics—Deprisa, deprisa and Furtivos—will be screened, along with the recovery of Tirarse al monte, a film that was banned and disappeared for half a century.
• The premiere of Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of the S Rating, a documentary by Alberto Sedano that revisits the phenomenon of “S-rated” films, will also take place.
• Halloween night will feature a special double bill of “La Noche Z,” with screenings of Re-Animator and Psycho Goreman.

Throughout October, Cineteca Madrid proposes a tour of different ways of understanding cinema as a poetic, political, and experimental space: from the monumental retrospective of Raúl Ruiz to the contemporary radicalism of Travis and Erin Wilkerson, the recovery of Spanish films once made invisible, and the Brazilian dystopias of Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta.

Raúl Ruiz Retrospective: The Territory of Mystery

A poet of detours, false leads, and open-ended narratives, Raúl Ruiz left behind a filmography of more than a hundred titles now recognized as one of the most radical and fascinating bodies of work in modern cinema. The retrospective, which will continue until December, covers everything from his experimental beginnings in Chile with works like El realismo socialista (Raúl Ruiz, Valeria Sarmiento, Chile, 2023), to major European productions such as Time Regained (France-Italy-Portugal, 1999), as well as clandestine, spectral, and playful pieces like Treasure Island (France-UK-USA, 1985).

October screenings, organized in collaboration with the Embassy of Chile, include The Wandering Soap Opera (Chile, 2017), The Tango of the Widower and Its Distorting Mirror (Chile, 2020), Genealogies of a Crime (France-Portugal, 1997), Dialogues of Exiles (Chile, 1975), Bérénice (France, 1983), and Three Lives and Only One Death (France-Portugal, 1996).

Spanish Cinema Day: Memory Recovered

As every year, Cineteca joins Spanish Cinema Day with a program that brings essential works back to the screen and rescues films once thought lost. This October features restored versions of Deprisa, deprisa (Carlos Saura, 1981) and Furtivos (José Luis Borau, 1975), two milestones of Spain’s Transition period that redefined the boundaries of social and political representation.

The highlight of this edition is the recovery of Tirarse al monte (Alfonso Ungría, 1971), banned by Francoist censorship and missing for more than 50 years. Restored by ECAM (Madrid Film and Audiovisual School), the film returns to reveal a vibrant, unsettling, and experimental cinema once silenced.

‘New Imaginaries’: Cinema and Museum in Dialogue

In collaboration with Contemporánea Conde Duque, Cineteca presents New Imaginaries, a program accompanying the exhibition curated by photographer Nicolás Combarro and writer-journalist Miguel Ángel Delgado. The project brings together Oliver Laxe, Isaki Lacuesta, Laida Lertxundi, Lois Patiño, and the duo Helena Girón–Samuel M. Delgado, proposing a journey beyond the limits of the movie theater.

After showing at CGAC (Galician Contemporary Art Center), the program comes to Madrid as a dual experience: video installations at Conde Duque and a cycle at Cineteca. Featured works include Noite sem distância (Lois Patiño, 2015), Las variaciones Marker (Isaki Lacuesta, 2007), The Room Called Heaven (Laida Lertxundi, 2012), Sin Dios ni Santa María (Helena Girón, Samuel Delgado, 2015), and París #1 (Oliver Laxe, 2007).

S Rating: Carte Blanche to Alberto Sedano

Coinciding with Spanish Cinema Day is the premiere of Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of the S Rating (USA, 2024), Alberto Sedano’s documentary narrated by Iggy Pop. It explores one of the most unusual episodes in Spanish film history: the phenomenon of “S-rated” films.

To accompany the premiere, Sedano presents two rare genre gems: Poppers (José María Castellví, Spain, 1984), a queer and uninhibited portrait of Madrid nightlife, and Más allá del terror (Tomás Aznar, Spain, 1980), a delirium between “quinqui” cinema and the supernatural.

Travis and Erin Wilkerson at Cineteca

Political agitators and committed filmmakers, Travis and Erin Wilkerson are one of the most vital duos in contemporary U.S. political cinema. Their hybrid work—part essay, part archive, part personal narrative—addresses themes from racial violence to nuclear imperialism, from workers’ memory to family grief.

This cycle, organized with Intersección (International Film Festival of A Coruña) and featuring the filmmakers in person, includes key works such as An Injury to One (2003), Machine Gun or Typewriter? (2025), Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? (2017), and Nuclear Family (USA-Singapore, 2022).

First Spanish Retrospective of Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta

In collaboration with Festival INSTAR, Cineteca presents the work of the Brazilian-Portuguese duo. Filmed from geographical and social margins, their cinema rewrites present-day myths through apocryphal archives, invented memories, and popular dystopias.

Films include Branco Sai, Preto Fica (Brazil, 2015), Once There Was Brasília (Brazil-Portugal, 2017), Um Campo de Aviação (Portugal-Brazil-USA, 2016), and Dry Ground Burning (Brazil-Portugal, 2022).

‘Lantern’. Episode 2: Lilies

The second episode of the program curated by Brays Efe and Miguel Agnes features Lilies, Les feluettes (John Greyson, Canada, 1996). A radical and poetic work blending prison melodrama, political opera, and a queer reimagining of Shakespeare, it will be screened for the first time in Spain in 4K.

‘Confessional’ and ‘La Noche Z’

This month’s Confessional program presents three shorts by Julie Murray, Lisl Ponger, and Linda Christanell, who in the 1990s explored a fractured world from different geographies. Meanwhile, La Noche Z celebrates Halloween with a bloody double bill: Re-Animator (1985), Stuart Gordon’s Lovecraft-inspired classic, and Psycho Goreman (2020), an intergalactic gore comedy paying tribute to video-store cinema and latex monsters.

And More…

Cineteca also hosts the 11th edition of Another Way Film Festival this month and collaborates on activities commemorating Hispanic Heritage Day with the cycle Crossed Programs: Madrid in Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires in Madrid.

Premieres include Campos and Buda salta el muro, along with regular sessions such as Nosotras contamos (Germinal), MICE, Relatos del ruido, Ciclo DOCMA, Así son las cosas (Cabello/Carceller), CIMA Conversa, and Imprescindibles TVE.

More information and contact:
comunicacion@mataderomadrid.org