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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 JUNE 2015 40 This Week IN CINEMAS TODAY Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Mad Max: Fury Road (15) 10:15, 13:30, 16:05, 18:40, 21:15 The Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A) 18:00, 21:00 Spy (15) 10:25, 13:15, 15:50, 18:25, 21:00 Age of Adaline (12A) 10:30, 13:35, 16:05, 18:35, 20:50 San Andreas (3D) 10:15, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 Tomorrowland (PG) 10:15, 14:15, 18:00, 20:50 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 The Good Lie (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:05, 23:25 San Andreas (12A) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:45 The Age of Adaline (12A) 14:10, 16:30, 18:50, 21:10, 23:35 The Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A) 14:30, 18:00, 21:00 Tomorowland (PG) 14:30, 18:10, 20:55, 23:40 Turist (15) 14:00, 18:50 Woman in Gold (12) 14:05, 16:30, 18:50, 21:05, 23:25 Get Hard (15) 14:15, 16:25, 18:40, 21:00, 23:15 Unfriended (15) 14:15, 16:15, 18:45, 21:15, 23:15 Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (PG) 14:10, 16:15, 18:30, 20:45, 23:00 Mad Max – Fury Road 3D (15) 14:30, 18:25, 20:55, 23:30 Living in the Age of Airplanes (U) 16:30, 17:45, 21:15, 22:45 Spooks: The Greater Good (15) 14:15, 16:30, 18:45, 21:10, 23:30 Spy (15) 14:20, 18:15, 20:50, 23:25 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 The Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D (12A) 10:30, 13:30, 18:00, 20:55 Mad Max – Fury Road (15) 10:15, 12:55, 15:30, 18:00, 20:45 Spy (15) 11:00, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 San Andreas 3D (12A) 10:50, 13:30, 15:55, 18:20, 20:50 Tomorrowland (PG) 10:55, 14:00, 18:00, 21:00 The Age of Adaline (12A) 10:30, 13:00, 15:35, 18:10, 21:00 Spooks: The Greater Good (15) 11:05, 13:35, 15:55, 18:15, 20:50 BUMBLING through the hassles of modern life – now made worse by the constant surveillance and chatter of smartphones and so- cial media – it's easy to assume that while a farmer's life may be 'hardy work', it's bound to at least be less noisy and nerve-wracking than what we struggle with every day, right? We all know that it's a fantasy we're referring to, whenever we invoke the image of rural dwell- ers toiling away in uncomplicated labour, securing a self-sustaining existence free of the bureaucratic responsibilities we live in con- stant fear of… but we indulge in this anyway, because it's such an easy imaginative escape route to tap into. Jayro Bustamante, director of the French-Guatemalan produc- tion Ixcanul Volcano debunks this notion from the – pig- slaughtering – word go, but this is only the tip of a very conten- tious iceberg. Employing a com- ing-of-age story as its outer shell, it reveals a society on the brink of extinction and by the end of it, both metaphorically and literally dispossessed. The 17-year-old Maria (María Mercedes Coroy) dreams of es- caping away from the Guatema- lan volcanic slopes where she was born and raised, hoping that her secret boyfriend Pepe (Mar- vin Coroy) will make good on his promise to take her with him when he leaves. But her parents – especially her resourceful mother Juana (María Telón) – are ada- mant on an arranged marriage with fellow farmer Ignacio (Justo Lorenzo). When complications arise for both the family's crop and Maria's unexpected preg- nancy, the young woman finds herself thrust into the modern world, but in a way she may not have expected. Though the daily operations of the volcano-framed village take precedence throughout the course of the film – there's a clear interest in showing how this community works – this isn't yet another case of the leery, pat- ronising Hollywood gaze. Rather, Bustamante can boast of captur- ing the kind of unglamorised, lived-in natural landscape that the luminary Werner Herzog excels at. And though the main engine of the drama has the sim- ple lilt of a tragic fairy tale, with Maria's journey is shot through the inevitable churns of nature, crushed as she is by repressive social mores, there is no roman- ticisation in how her surround- ings are depicted. The afore- mentioned pig slaughter is nasty, brutish and short, and though the titular – and symbol-rich – still- active volcano may be an impres- sive sight, there are no cheap postcard shots. Most poignantly, however, nei- ther is this world blissfully remote from the 'modern' one. Maria's family runs a fraught coffee plan- tation, relying on the 'outside' for its continued survival. As such, these peasants who can't even boast of having running water (as a bored census-taker informs us) continually rub shoulders with erstwhile colleagues that have mobile phones, and those who aspire to cross the Rubicon are reminded they suffer from a dou- ble insularity: "Before you learn English, you should learn Spanish first," Ignacio is told at one point, knowing full well that he won't get very far with his native Maya. The idea of two worlds exist- ing side by side is often either the stuff of fantasy, or the done-to- death trope in Victorian literary adaptations. Here the metaphor is real and tangible: the worlds are wended together by econom- ic forces, and Maria's ostensibly universal coming-of-age story is marred and shaded by it. An unassuming, hypnotic fea- ture with plenty of political bite, but whose note of protest reso- nates all the more deeply for be- ing subdued. Ixcanul Volcano will be show- ing from next week as part of the Valletta Film Festival. It will be shown at Pjazza Teatru Rjal on June 16 at 21:00. It will then be shown at Embassy Cinemas on: June 17 (13:30 and 20:30), June 19 (22:30) and June 22 (18:00). For more information and to book tickets log on to https://www.val- lettafilmfestival.com/ By Teodor Reljic Red in tooth and claw ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ VOLCANIC POWER ★ ★ ★ ★ MOLTEN ENERGY ★ ★ ★ GOOD VIBRATIONS ★ ★ DORMANT ★ EVACUATE FILM Bubbling rage: María Mercedes Coroy in Jayro Bustamante's powerful account of a family – and a community – rendered dispossessed by their surroundings IXCANUL VOLCANO (N/A) ★ ★ ★ ★