Screened as part of NZIFF 2017

Kiki, Love to Love 2016

Kiki, el amor se hace

Directed by Paco Léon

Anyone for harpaxophilia? How about somnophilia? In five intertwined mini-romcoms, a scorching summer heatwave intensifies the very particular desires of a collection of Madrid lovers. A major hit at the Spanish box office.

Spain In Spanish with English subtitles
102 minutes CinemaScope / DCP

Rent

Director

Producers

Ghislain Barrois
,
Álvaro Augustin
,
Andrés Martín

Screenplay

Paco Léon
,
Fernando Pérez

Photography

Kiko de la Rica

Editor

Alberto de Toro

Production designers

Montse Sanz
,
Vincent Díaz

Costume designers

Pepe Patatín
,
Javier Bernal

With

Paco Léon (Paco)
,
Ana Katz (Ana)
,
Belén Cuesta (Belén)
,
Álex García (Álex)
,
Natalia de Molina (Natalia)
,
Candela Peña (Ms Candelaria)
,
Luis Callejo (Antonio)
,
Luis Bermejo (José Luis)
,
Mari Paz Sayago (Paloma)
,
Alexandra Jiménez (Sandra)
,
David Mora (Rubén)

Elsewhere

Born under the sign of Almodóvar, though not so supple in its parsing of perversity, Paco León’s homeland hit finds comedy and a little pathos in the mismatched sexual kinks of a group of interconnected Spaniards. Paco (director León) and Ana, for example, work on reigniting their passion by visiting bondage parties and furry nightclubs – and find themselves igniting unexpected passions in others. Natalia, meanwhile, discovers after getting mugged that she has a case of harpaxophilia, helpfully explained on-screen as “sexual arousal being produced by being robbed with violence,” while José learns he has somnophilia, sexual pleasure caused by watching someone sleep. If you caught a whiff of the non-consensual in any of this, it may or may not encourage you to learn that in this film’s sunny view of gratification, nobody ends up feeling used.

A remake of the Australian sex comedy, The Little Death, it could hardly differ more in spirit, transposing the action to a sweltering Madrid and celebrating difference, its message never more sweetly displayed than when a hearing-impaired call centre worker (fetish: silk) helps a voiceless customer indulge his fantasies through a phone sex line.