Biutiful

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Movie
Original title Biutiful
Country of production Mexico , Spain
original language Spanish
Publishing year 2010
length 148 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
script Alejandro González Iñárritu,
Armando Bó ,
Nicolás Giacobone
production Fernando Bovaira ,
Alejandro González Iñárritu ,
Jon Kilik
music Gustavo Santaolalla
camera Rodrigo Prieto
cut Stephen Mirrione
occupation

Biutiful is a 2010 Mexican drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu .

action

The location of the action is Barcelona. The protagonist Uxbal lives in cramped conditions separated from his wife Marambra. She has sexual contacts with Uxbal's brother, who earns well as a subcontractor in the construction industry. Uxbal takes care of his school-age children Ana and Mateo in a loving way. There is no other social or family environment, Uxbal grew up as an orphan . He earns money by organizing the illegal street sale of counterfeit branded goods by an African fence ring and securing this by bribing a police officer. His (supposed) ability to be able to contact the dead is paid for by the bereaved at funeral ceremonies and funerals. Abdominal pain and bloody urine lead to the diagnosis of advanced cancer of the prostate (with distant metastases in the lungs and liver) at Uxbal, the attending physician starts chemotherapy and tells him that his life expectancy is only a few months if the therapy is carried out; However, Uxbal breaks it off and seeks help and advice from Bea, an esoteric friend.

Uxbal tries with all his might to build a secure future for his children, but his attempts fail and his problems get bigger and bigger. The reconciliation with his alcoholic and bipolar ( manic-depressive ) wife Marambra fails, and raising children with her turns out to be impossible.

The Africans from the fence ring, who sell for him the brand counterfeit illegally produced by an also illegal Chinese group, are brutally chased and arrested by the police; Uxbal is also provisionally arrested when he tries to help his friend Ekweme arrest him. However, he is released on bail by his brother.

The brother wants to employ the now unemployed illegal Chinese on a construction site as illegal workers. You spend the night in unheated accommodation that is locked at night. Uxbal gets a couple of gas burners for the room, but uses the cheapest ones to save money. One morning almost all of the Chinese, including a woman with a child, lay dead on their mattresses, apparently as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning from the burners. The two tugs that the Chinese brought to Spain carry the bodies onto a ship and throw them into the sea off the coast, but the next day they are washed up on the beach, attracting a great deal of media attention.

Uxbal is plagued by the most severe feelings of guilt, at the same time the cancer has an increasing impact. Again he seeks consolation from Bea, who gives him two black stones that he should pass on to his children as souvenirs when the time has come to say goodbye to them. His brother drags him into a booming porn bar and disco, where Uxbal feels completely out of place. He gives the money he has saved for his children to the wife of Ekweme, whom he let live with her small child after Ekweme's expulsion. Now she takes care of the dying Uxbal and looks after his children. Uxbal has the hope that after his death she will take care of his children, which she does initially. When she has the money in her hands, however, she decides to run away with it. At the last second she thinks about it again and turns back on the platform. Uxbal's death is accompanied by surreal images: black butterflies on the ceiling above his bed that multiply in the course of the film, the corpses of the Chinese floating under the ceiling of their bedroom.

The final sequence of the film is identical to the first scene in the film: At the moment of his death, he meets his (teenage) father in a snow-covered forest, who had to flee to Mexico shortly before he was born, but died there of pneumonia two weeks later. Uxbal and his brother had viewed the embalmed body of the father in the morgue when the grave site was closed.

Production and film launch

Filming began in Barcelona in October 2008 . Biutiful first hit cinemas in France on October 20, 2010. The premiere in Mexico followed two days later. The German film launch was on March 10, 2011.

Awards

The film team at the Cannes Film Festival

Biutiful was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Academy Awards. It was also Javier Bardem for his performance as Best Actor nomination. This makes Biutiful the first completely Spanish-language film to receive a nomination in this category.

The film was presented at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2010 and was nominated for the Palme d'Or for Best Film . Bardem was named best actor .

The film was nominated in eight categories for the Spanish Goya film award and won the award for best actor (Bardem). At the British Academy Film Awards 2011 there were two nominations for best foreign language film and for best leading actor (Bardem).

The film won an award for Best Foreign Language Film at the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards , the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards, and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards . There were also more than a dozen other nominations, including the Golden Globe Awards , the Satellite Awards, and the Critics' Choice Awards .

Trivia

The spelling incorrect title "Biutiful" comes from a scene in the film. The father Uxbal reads the word from a drawing by his daughter Ana. He himself had misspelled it for her in an earlier scene.

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