The highlight of the week: The Birthday Party by Miguel Ángel Jiménez, with Willem Dafoe, Vic Carmen Sonne, Emma Suárez. GRE/ESP/United Kingdom, 2026, 103 min., M/14 Even if it were only for Willem Dafoe's performance as the millionaire shipowner Marcos Timoleon (recalling the figure of the historic Aristotle Onassis; a memory reinforced by the voice of Callas that opens the film), it would already be worth discovering The Birthday Party, an international production from Greece that adapts Panos Karnezis's 2007 novel of the same title. Unlike the book, punctuated by analepses that reveal the protagonist's past until he becomes an 'all-powerful' figure, the film by the Spaniard Miguel Ángel Jiménez focuses on the 24 hours and the morning after the 25th birthday party of Timoleon's daughter, Sofia (Vic Carmen Sonne). On the father's private island, succession plans are drawn up that involve marrying Sofia to a suitor from a close family. However, the plans are threatened by the news that Sofia is pregnant by a journalist whom Timoleon had hired to write his biography. At the Locarno Festival conference where the film was presented, Dafoe refused to judge the figure of Timoleon, saying that he merely gave his own version of him. Perhaps the secret of a career filled with great and highly diverse roles is the ability not to dwell on the conditioning that opinions entail, choosing instead to let the characters emerge so that each spectator judges them for themselves. Timoleon is, in equal measure, a fascinating and reprehensible figure who dominates the entire film, maneuvering so that the estate is passed on under his terms, whatever the cost. The spectator watches through the keyhole (and through the recording tapes that register everything happening on the island) the family drama whose matrix is the classical Greek tragedy of Agamemnon and the sacrificed daughter, Iphigenia, while following the growing debauchery of the guests' behavior throughout the afternoon and night, of orgiastic contours. RG. Other releases. Beyond the Horizon: The Crossing by Fernando Vendrell, with Gonçalo Waddington, Miguel Damião, Francisco Froes, Rafael Gomes, Júlia Palha POR, 2025, 97 min., M/12 An account of the epic deeds of the modern argonauts at the beginning of the 20th century, following the Portuguese aviation pioneers Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral in their fearless race to cross the South Atlantic.
Driven by a strong spirit of adventure, they challenged the limits of human effort by navigating unknown skies. Their feats and scientific innovations in astronomical navigation revealed the path to other planets in the universe. Our Secret by Grace Passô, with Robert Frank, Ju Colombo, Mateus Aleluia, Flip POR/BRA, 2026, 107 min., M/14 The narrative follows a Black family trying to rebuild their routine after a recent loss. While each of them faces grief in their own way, the youngest son keeps a secret capable of transforming the way everyone goes through this process. Dracula by Radu Jude, with Adonis Tanta, Oana Maria Zaharia, Gabriel Spahiu AUS/LUX/SUI/BRA/ROM/United Kingdom, 2025, 170 min., M/16 What happens when a young and curious filmmaker challenges their creativity with the unlimited possibilities of a fake artificial intelligence? A surprising mixture of several stories, from ancient and modern times, about the original myth of Dracula: a vampire hunt, zombies and Dracula interrupting a strike, a science fiction tale about the return of Vlad the Impaler, an adaptation of the first Romanian vampire novel, a tragic romance, a common folk tale, kitsch stories generated by AI... and much more! Two Seasons, Two Strangers by Sho Miyake, with Eun-Kyung Shim, Yumi Kawai, Mansaku Takada, Shiro Sano JAP, 2025, 98 min., M/12 Adaptation of two manga by Yoshitaru. The story narrates playful encounters and brief connections that, over two seasons, intertwine the lives of strangers across Summer and Winter landscapes. De Gaulle: Freedom.