UK directorFrancesca Joseph's Four Last Songs will close the 10th annual edition of the Spanish Film Festival of Malaga(March 9-17).

The film, aSpanish co-production which shot in Mallorca, stars Stanley Tucci, with Rhys Ifans, HughBonneville and Marisa Paredes. It's the story of an American pianist ofmediocre talents whose efforts to organise a concert on theMediterranean island where he lives are met with interference by thelocals.

Joseph's follow-up to 2002 Cannes screener Tomorrow La Scala!will play out of competition in Malaga.


Fifteen otherfilms, including five operas primas, will round out the officialsection, opening with out-of-competition title Lola, Miguel Hermoso'sbiopic about beloved flamenco star Lola Flores.

The operasprimas include: Jaime Marques' Thieves (Ladrones), starring teen idolJuan Jose Ballesta and Maria Valverde; Rafa Cortes' Me (Yo), which heco-wrote and stars in with Alex Brendemuhl; Rodrigo Cortes' LeonardoSbaraglia-starrer The Contestant (Concursante); award-winning shortfilm director Felix Viscarret's Under The Stars (Bajo Las Estrellas);and actor Tristan Ulloa's directorial debut alongside brother DavidUlloa, Pudor.

Competitiontitles from more veteran talents include Antonio Hernandez's The LesserEvil (El Menor De Los Males) starring Carmen Maura, also the subject ofa retrospective this year; and Anton Reixa's multilingual Hotel Tivoli.

Previous Malaga best script and director winner Vicente Penarrocha (OutOf Body) returns with English-language Guantanamero, starring RupertEvans and Derek Jacobi.

Jacobi alsoco-stars in Italy-set Anastezsi, one of the remaining competitiontitles alongside Ricardo Macian's documentary The Eyes Of Ariana (LosOjos De Ariana), about workers' efforts to save the contents of theNational Film Archives of Afghanistan; Santiago Lorenzo's odd couplecomedy Have A Nice Day (Un Buen Dia Lo Tiene Cualquiera); AzucenaRodriguez's relationship drama Atlas Of Human Geography (Atlas DeGeografia Humana); Manuel Lombardero's about a group offriends trying to survive in the city; and Alvaro Diaz Lorenzo'scoming-of-age ensemble tale Cafe Solo O Con Ellas.Tuya Siempre,

Parallelevents include the Malaga Screenings market (March 15-17), where morethan 70 international buyers from 30 countries - largely from LatinAmerica and Europe - are expected to screen over 70 Spanish featurefilms. Other markets to take place after the festival itself, from May3-5, include Mercadoc, TV Market, Art TV and Malaga TV.

Sidebarsections at Malaga include the feature and short film competitionZonaZine; a documentary competition with 18 feature-length contendersselected from 250 presented; and the competitive TerritorioLatinoamericano section two newly-created prizes for best film.

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