Marinaleda

What works better for vampires hitchhiking during the daytime: sunscreen or Nivea? This is only one of many everyday questions addressed by the beguiling Marinaleda, made by young Cahiers du Cinéma critic Louis Séguin (don’t confuse him with the veteran Positif critic who died in 2008).

Resolutely naturalistic and lightly comical in tone, this story traces the strange and eventful encounter between two male vampire buddies and the lively, curious woman who picks them up. Séguin pays homage to the modern school of Eugène Green, Axelle Ropert and Serge Bozon, giving it a droll spin. The title comes from a Spanish village known as a Communist Utopia; the characters head there because, after centuries of observing a society of bourgeois self-interest, they wonder if the world can be any different.

– Adrian Martin