Icíar Bollaín

Directing

Icíar Bollaín

Born

1967-06-12 (59)

Place of birth

Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Known for

Directing

Credits

57 titles

Icíar Bollaín Pérez-Mínguez (born June 12, 1967; Madrid) is a Spanish actress, director and writer. Her father was an aeronautical engineer and her mother was a music teacher. She made her début when she was 15 years old. She is a member of the Academia Española de Cinematografía. She began her work in cinema at the age of fourteen as part of the cast in Victor Erice's film El Sur (1983). Since then she has acted in fourteen films. Hola, estas sola? (Hi, are you alone? in English) (1995) was her first feature film as director, a story about two young girls who dream of finding an earthly paradise, and undertake a long trip towards the sea. Flores de otro mundo (Flowers from another world i…

Known for

Film credits

2000s · 6 titles

The Night of the Brother poster
4.4

The Night of the brother ("La Noche del Hermano") is a chiaroscuro tale in which the characters' not always explicit feelings cover the gamut from darkness to light through the thin line between love and fear. Because the events of life are often less astonishing than the way they are shown to us.

The Night of the Brother

2005

They're Watching Us poster
5.4

Norberto Lopez Amado's They're Watching Us is about a cop who becomes obsessed with a case. Juan (Carmelo Gomez) is ordered to head up an investigation concerning a businessman who has been missing for almost three years. The officer who worled on the case previously now resides in a mental institution and is unable to say anything other than, "They're watching us." A priest (Roberto Alvarez) explains how a series of disappearances in the area have supernatural underpinnings. As Juan is absorbed deeper and deeper into the case, his mother is concerned for him.

They're Watching Us

2002

Rage poster
5.6

A romantic thriller about a construction worker in hiding for killing his foreman who hides in the mansion where his girlfriend works as a maid.

Rage

2009

The Stone Raft poster
5.3

An inexplicable crack in the Pyrenees Mountains provokes excitement and scientific curiosity. As the geological fracture deepens and widens, the European community begins to disassociate itself from the calamity, and panic ensues among tourists and residents attempting to escape. When Spain and Portugal physically separate from the continent, the detached Iberian peninsula aimlessly floats off to sea, becoming home to a group of god-like humans.

The Stone Raft

2002

Leo poster
6.6

Salva works as security guard in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Madrid. There he meets Leo, a woman who makes a living collecting cardboard. As Salva falls in love with her, Leo's dark past comes back to haunt her.

Leo

2000

Sara, una estrella poster
9.5

No synopsis available yet.

Sara, una estrella

2002

1990s · 10 titles

Land and Freedom poster
7.3

Summer 1936: young unemployed communist David Carr leaves Liverpool to join the fight against fascism in Spain. He joins an international group of Militia-men and women, the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista). After being wounded, he goes to Barcelona, where he joins another group of fighters.

Land and Freedom

1995

Tocando fondo poster
6.0

Andres de Granada, a forty-benefit trade more clear, believed that the first months of 1993 are the best time to do business. It also has the help of his nephew Fulgencio, who has arrived in Madrid with the idea of ​​learning the trade.

Tocando fondo

1993

Niño nadie poster
5.0

Unbenownst to a middle-aged teacher of handicapped children, his long-term suffering girlfriend is pregnant with his child. The film philosophically explores the ideas of free will and destiny as they relate to the characters and their life choices.

Niño nadie

1997

Un paraguas para tres poster
9.0

Having just split up with their respective partners, Maria and Daniel meet in a shop where they argue over a bed. From then on, they keep running into each other in all sorts of strange places and in all sorts of circumstances. They are mutually attracted and begin to intrepret the coincidences of their meeting as sign of fate, but they are hesitant to take the plunge. This little game of love and fate becomes even more complicated when Pierre, a French teacher, and Alicia, Maria's friend, become involved..Who will seduce whom?...Who will be seduced by whom?...After a series of misunderstandings, love settles the question.

Un paraguas para tres

1992

Sublet poster
7.0

Laura is a young woman from Madrid who lives in the most degraded area of ​​New York. There he lives a series of anecdotes that make up his day-to-day life in the United States

Sublet

1992

No artwork available
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Doblones de a ocho

1990

Hi, Are You Alone? poster
5.3

Nina is a 20 years old girl from Valladolid who lives with her divorced father, an autoritarian and conservative man. Trini is of the same age and has lost her mother. For both Valladolid and their families have nothing to offer and therefore they go on a risky voyage to the Costa del Sol at the south of Spain.

Hi, Are You Alone?

1995

Subjúdice poster
7.5

No synopsis available yet.

Subjúdice

1998

Menos que cero poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Menos que cero

1996

Dime una mentira poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Dime una mentira

1993

1980s · 7 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Take My Eyes poster
7.2

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

Take My Eyes

2003

Take My Eyes poster
7.2

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

Take My Eyes

2003

Rosa's Wedding poster
6.2

Rosa is about to turn 45 and realises that she's always lived her life to serve everyone else. So she decides to leave it all behind, take charge of her life and fulfil her dream of starting her own business.

Rosa's Wedding

2020

Rosa's Wedding poster
6.2

Rosa is about to turn 45 and realises that she's always lived her life to serve everyone else. So she decides to leave it all behind, take charge of her life and fulfil her dream of starting her own business.

Rosa's Wedding

2020

Even the Rain poster
7.0

As a director and his crew shoot a controversial film about Christopher Columbus in Cochabamba, Bolivia, local people rise up against plans to privatize the water supply.

Even the Rain

2011

Maixabel poster
7.0

In the year 2000, Maixabel Lasa’s husband, Juan Maria Jauregi, was killed by ETA. Eleven years later, she receives an incredible request: one of the men who killed Juan wants to meet with her in the Nanclares de la Oca prison in Araba (Spain), where he is serving his sentence after breaking ties with the terrorist group. Despite her reservations and her immense pain, Maixabel Lasa agrees to meet face to face with those who ended the life of the person who had been her companion since she was 16 years old. ‘Everyone deserves a second chance’, she said, when asked why she was willing to confront the man who killed her husband.

Maixabel

2021

Maixabel poster
7.0

In the year 2000, Maixabel Lasa’s husband, Juan Maria Jauregi, was killed by ETA. Eleven years later, she receives an incredible request: one of the men who killed Juan wants to meet with her in the Nanclares de la Oca prison in Araba (Spain), where he is serving his sentence after breaking ties with the terrorist group. Despite her reservations and her immense pain, Maixabel Lasa agrees to meet face to face with those who ended the life of the person who had been her companion since she was 16 years old. ‘Everyone deserves a second chance’, she said, when asked why she was willing to confront the man who killed her husband.

Maixabel

2021

I Am Nevenka poster
6.9

In the year 2000, Nevenka Fernández, 24 years old, Councilor for Finance in the Ponferrada City Council, suffered relentless persecution, both sentimental and professional, by the mayor, a man accustomed to doing his will politically and personally. She never decides to report, although she knows that she will have to pay a very high price: her environment does not support her, the society of Ponferrada turns its back on her and the media subjects her to a public trial. A story inspired by real events that turns its protagonist into a pioneer by taking an influential and popular politician to court for sexual and workplace harassment for the first time.

I Am Nevenka

2024

I Am Nevenka poster
6.9

In the year 2000, Nevenka Fernández, 24 years old, Councilor for Finance in the Ponferrada City Council, suffered relentless persecution, both sentimental and professional, by the mayor, a man accustomed to doing his will politically and personally. She never decides to report, although she knows that she will have to pay a very high price: her environment does not support her, the society of Ponferrada turns its back on her and the media subjects her to a public trial. A story inspired by real events that turns its protagonist into a pioneer by taking an influential and popular politician to court for sexual and workplace harassment for the first time.

I Am Nevenka

2024

With Good Reason poster
4.7

A multi-part feature on the governing body of Spain, the Popular Party under Jose María Aznar. Themes include the bombing of Iraq, immigration, U.S. fire in Baghdad, and the manipulation of the media.

With Good Reason

2004

Yuli poster
6.9

Yuli is the nickname given to Carlos Acosta by his father, Pedro, who considers him the son of Ogun, an African god and a fighter. As a child Yuli avoids discipline and education, learning from the streets of an impoverished and abandoned Havana. His father, however, has other ideas, and knowing that his son has a natural talent for dance, sends him to the National Ballet School of Cuba. Despite his repeated escapes and initial poor behaviour, the boy is inevitably drawn to the world of dance, and begins to shape his legendary career from a young age, becoming the first black dancer to be cast in some of the most prestigious ballet roles, originally written for white dancers, in companies such as the Houston Ballet or the Royal Ballet in London.

Yuli

2018

The Olive Tree poster
6.7

Alma’s family has been producing quality olive oil in the Baix Maestrat area of Spain’s Castellón for generations. Yet changing pressures in the industry have made their traditional practices economically untenable, and the family is now in the mass-production poultry business. Alma’s grandfather has not spoken in years. Sadness envelopes him, and he no longer wants to eat. His sons—Alma’s father and uncle—are impatient with him, but Alma understands her grandfather. She realizes he has been grieving for a thousand-year-old olive tree that the family has uprooted and sold to pay some debts. (A sadly common reality in Castellón at present.) Unable to bear the idea that her grandfather could die without seeing this terrible wrong corrected, Alma undertakes a quixotic mission to locate the tree and return it to the family orchard, so that her grandfather may have peace in his final days.

The Olive Tree

2016

Friendly Dead poster
4.0

Carlos is 50 years old. It has a cake with candles and seven friends to celebrate him. The police have one dead and seven suspected murder. All they have reasons to kill Carlos, and they all are... friends of the deceased.

Friendly Dead

1994

Friendly Dead poster
4.0

Carlos is 50 years old. It has a cake with candles and seven friends to celebrate him. The police have one dead and seven suspected murder. All they have reasons to kill Carlos, and they all are... friends of the deceased.

Friendly Dead

1994

Mataharis poster
5.1

Private detectives Inés, Eva, and Carmen often invade others' privacy but are clueless about confronting their own secrets. While on the job, these three surveillance specialists will have to cross the thin line dividing public and private matters, bringing their own issues to light in order to solve more than just their professional cases.

Mataharis

2007

Mataharis poster
5.1

Private detectives Inés, Eva, and Carmen often invade others' privacy but are clueless about confronting their own secrets. While on the job, these three surveillance specialists will have to cross the thin line dividing public and private matters, bringing their own issues to light in order to solve more than just their professional cases.

Mataharis

2007

Poniente poster
6.0

After living in Madrid for many years as a teacher, Lucia returns to her hometown after her father's death results in the inheritance of his tomato farm. While fighting the community's racism toward the new illegal workers, Lucia falls in love with the farm's accountant, Curro, a man who shares her cause. The couple is forced to confront the racism of the town and as tensions come to head, they will have to make some decisions that could cost them everything.

Poniente

2002

Kathmandu Lullaby poster
5.9

Kathmandu, Nepal, early 1990s. Laia, a young teacher from Catalonia, Spain, works at a local school in the slums of the city where poverty reigns. Her personal path, besieged by a harsh sum of indescribable social conditions, will be a struggle against a nefarious educational system, but a journey of self-discovery as well.

Kathmandu Lullaby

2011

Kathmandu Lullaby poster
5.9

Kathmandu, Nepal, early 1990s. Laia, a young teacher from Catalonia, Spain, works at a local school in the slums of the city where poverty reigns. Her personal path, besieged by a harsh sum of indescribable social conditions, will be a struggle against a nefarious educational system, but a journey of self-discovery as well.

Kathmandu Lullaby

2011

Flowers From Another World poster
5.4

Patricia, a woman from Dominican Republic, needs a home and an economic security that her illegal status in Madrid does not provide her. Milady, twenty, born in Havana and dying to travel the world. Marirosi has a job, a home, and the most complete solitude... just like Alfonso, Damián and Carmelo, men from the St. Eulalia, a village lacking both marrying women and future. A bachelors' party forces the encounter between them and the beginning of this bittersweet story of sharing a living.

Flowers From Another World

1999

Flowers From Another World poster
5.4

Patricia, a woman from Dominican Republic, needs a home and an economic security that her illegal status in Madrid does not provide her. Milady, twenty, born in Havana and dying to travel the world. Marirosi has a job, a home, and the most complete solitude... just like Alfonso, Damián and Carmelo, men from the St. Eulalia, a village lacking both marrying women and future. A bachelors' party forces the encounter between them and the beginning of this bittersweet story of sharing a living.

Flowers From Another World

1999

Hi, Are You Alone? poster
5.3

Nina is a 20 years old girl from Valladolid who lives with her divorced father, an autoritarian and conservative man. Trini is of the same age and has lost her mother. For both Valladolid and their families have nothing to offer and therefore they go on a risky voyage to the Costa del Sol at the south of Spain.

Hi, Are You Alone?

1995

Baja corazón poster
3.5

A touch of horn is enough for the girl to meet with her boyfriend...

Baja corazón

1992

Baja corazón poster
3.5

A touch of horn is enough for the girl to meet with her boyfriend...

Baja corazón

1992

A Love That Kills poster
6.5

The two million Spanish women who are victims of domestic violence and the death each week of a woman at the hands of her partner is not fiction but pure reality.

A Love That Kills

2000

A Love That Kills poster
6.5

The two million Spanish women who are victims of domestic violence and the death each week of a woman at the hands of her partner is not fiction but pure reality.

A Love That Kills

2000

En tierra extraña poster
3.5

A documentary about the life of young Spanish immigrants in Edinburgh, Scotland, who had to leave Spain due to recession and unemployment.

En tierra extraña

2014

En tierra extraña poster
3.5

A documentary about the life of young Spanish immigrants in Edinburgh, Scotland, who had to leave Spain due to recession and unemployment.

En tierra extraña

2014

1,2,3...Casa poster
4.5

Lorenzo del Escorial (Madrid), where normally, protection and improvement are much more than words. A tale of fears and anxieties, dreams and illusions, games and entertainment, full of nostalgia and the harshness of a reality that was not always happy. Accompany a child grow is a difficult, almost impossible when you have to help you recover and find their way. Aldeas Infantiles SOS does it every day. For an adult, you must first be a child.

1,2,3...Casa

2012