Agenda UV

The López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (joint centre of the CSIC and the University of Valencia), located at the Palau de Cerveró, and the Cinema Club of the University of Valencia present the film season: "Portraits of womanhood". The season will begin next Thursday 6 March with the screening of the film The Mother (Roger Mitchell, 2003). On Thursday 13, it will be the turn of Wolke Neun (Cloud Nine, Andreas Dresen, 2008). Next week, on Thursday 20, 80 egunean (In 80 days, José María Goenaga, Jon Garaño, 2010) will be screened. The season will come to a close with La vida empieza hoy (Life begins today, Laura Mañá, 2010), on Thursday 27 March.

All films will be screened in their original version, with Spanish subtitles, at 18:00 at the conference room at the Palau de Cerveró. Each film will be introduced by a member of the Cinema Club and an expert on the matter. There will also be a discussion after the film. The season will serve as a starting point to reflect on the importance of full emotional life at any age from a holistic health perspective, an issue we must defend especially in the case of women, who are often relegated to care duties and whose desired are overlooked by society.

The first film is The Mother, a British drama directed by South African director Roger Michell, who has directed famous films such as Persuasion and Notting Hill. It tells the story of May, a mature woman who moves to London with her family after the death of her husband. There, Mary will be driven by the busy lives of her children, where she will begin to obsess over the idea of being invisible to others. Everything will change after she falls in love with Darren, a man half his age and who is also her daughter's lover.

The German film Wolken Neun will be screened on Thursday 13 March. It tells the story of Inge, a sixty-year-old married woman who begins an unexpected love affair with an older man who makes her feel young again due to a renewed sexual health. The film addresses the issue of sexual experimentation at maturity, which is considered taboo and which is not addressed by commercial cinema, which prefers to portray the sexuality of young or adult people under 50 years of age.

The next film, to be screened on Thursday 20, will be 80 egunean (In 80 days, José María Goenaga, Jon Garaño, 2010), a Basque film which introduces the audience to the story of Axun, a 70-year-old woman who comes to hospital to take care of her daughter's ex-husband. There, she will get back in touch with Maite, her best friend when she was a teenager and who, by chance, is also taking care of a family member. Axun will experience an internal conflict when she discovers that she is a lesbian and is attracted to Maite.

The film La vida empieza hoy(Life begins today, Laura Maña, 2010) will close the season on Thursday 27 March. It stars veteran actresses Pilar Bardem and Rosa María Sardá and follows the development of a sex course aimed at elderly people. Olga, the teacher, will try to make them discover that their bodies are still alive. The film, co-produced by Ovideo, RTVE and Televisió de Catalunya, was presented at the 2010 edition of the Málaga Film Festival and it won the Critics Award.