There is no consensus on whether Cine Negro (Film Noir) is a genre, or just a mood, or even just a lack of studio lighting, but everybody loves it. The general ingredients for the Cine-Negro cocktail are the strange, the erotic, the ambivalent, and the cruel. Hell, imagine half of Humphrey Bogart’s face in the shadow of his hat and you’re on the right track.

Annoyingly for the Americans, the French kept rabbiting on about film noir whilst Hollywood was churning out melodramatic gangster and private-eye movies in the 40’s and 50’s. If they asked the French what film noir was, they would look at them as if they were stupid and just point to what Hollywood was busy churning out: asking them for a definition was an admission of stupidity, because there is no definition… Film noir just is.

Now, why the devil are we telling you all this? Well, because Salobreña is holding the I Muestra de Cine Negro from the 6th to the 10th of March… and it’s big. Salobreña is only the second Spanish town to host such a festival.

What you will be getting is the screening of several cine-negro classics with informal presentations given by film directors, live music, theatre plays and even a short-film competition via mobile telephone. Alex de la Iglesia, former Chairman of the Spanish Cinema Academy and fellow, renowned film director, Enrique Urbizu, will be two of the big names speaking at the conference.

Enrique Urbizu is a happy bunny at the moment – make that ‘eurphoric,’ as his film No Habrá Paz Para los Malvados (No Peace for the Wicked) has just scooped up six top prizes at the Goya Academy Awards, and by a quirk of fate, it is this film that will be opening the Salobreña Film Festival.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)