Javier Bardem stars in “Biutiful” — a love story between a father and his children. This is the journey of Uxbal (Bardem), a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. Bardem had previously won an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for “No Country For Old Men”.
“Biutiful” — nominated for two Academy Awards and starring Oscar-winner Javier Bardem — makes its Northern Arizona premiere in Sedona on Tuesday, April 12. This one-night special engagement is presented by the Sedona International Film Festival. There will be two screenings of the film at 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. at Harkins Sedona Six Theatres.
Nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, “Biutiful” has been praised by critics and audiences around the world. The film also garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Leading Actor for Javier Bardem, who had previously won an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for “No Country For Old Men”.
“Biutiful” is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the writer and director of “Babel” which was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director.
“Biutiful” is a love story between a father and his children. This is the journey of Uxbal (Bardem), a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. His livelihood is earned out of bounds, his sacrifices for his children know no bounds.
Like life itself, this is a circular tale that ends where it begins. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the inheritances bestowed from father to child, and the paternal guiding hand that navigates life’s corridors, whether bright, bad – or biutiful.
Uxbal embodies a man of roiling contradictions – a devoted father, broken lover, hardened street criminal, spiritual sensitive – in a moment of sudden, intensifying personal danger and vulnerability, as well as transformation.
Bardem always wanted to work with Alejandro González Iñárritu and vice versa – and the two finally come together with “Biutiful”. The director had Bardem in mind for Uxbal even as the character first emerged in his imagination. When he showed Bardem the script, the actor’s reaction was instantaneous.
“It had a deep impact on me, for sure,” says Bardem. “I had a very instinctive, emotional response to it. When you have this kind of material, you know you are going to jump into an ocean of doubts and fears, and also expectations and joys.”
“After having globe-trotted with ‘Babel’, I thought I had explored enough multiple lines, fractured structures and crossing narratives. Each of the films I have made has been shot in a different language, in a different country,” said González Iñárritu. “At the end of ‘Babel’, I was so exhausted I made it a point that my next film would be about just one character, with one point of view, in one single city, with a straight narrative line and in my own native language.”
“Using a musical analogy, if ‘Babel’ was an opera, ‘Biutiful’ is a requiem … and here I am,” added González Iñárritu. “ ‘Biutiful’ is all that I haven’t done: a linear story whose characters shape the narrative in an unexplored genre for me: the tragedy.”
The series is made possible by a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Sedona, and the Sedona Community Foundation.
“Biutiful” will be shown at Harkins Sedona Six Theatres on Tuesday, April 12 at 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $12, or $9 for Film Festival members, and will be available starting at 3:00 p.m. that day in the Harkins lobby. Cash or checks only. Film Sedona members can purchase tickets in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office, 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, Suite A3-4, or by calling 928.282.1177. For more information, visit: www.SedonaFilmFestival.com.
