Palomitas

About Palomitas

Palomitas ('Popcorn' in Spanish) is the podcast where Spanish cinema comes alive! The podcast has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland. Feedback and/or questions? Please send to palomitaspod@gmail.com - we'd love to hear from you!

Publisher

Palomitas - the podcast where Spanish cinema comes alive!

Category

tv & film

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Jan 2025

Latest episode

28 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

13 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   28 Sept 2026

   13. Sucia (Bàrbara Mestanza & Marc Pujolar, 2026) (with Duncan Wheeler)

   This week on Palomitas, we’re turning the lens inward - not on Spain's economic crisis or infrastructure, but on a crisis of the body, justice, and belief. We’re diving into Bàrbara Mestanza and Marc Pujolar’s extraordinary 2026 documentary, Sucia (Filthy) - a six-year, no-budget, shot-on-whatever-camera-was-available chronicle of one woman’s refusal to remain quiet.After she was sexually assaulted during a massage in Madrid in 2015, Mestanza decides to confront what happened not just in court, but on stage, in a novel, and finally on camera. The film explicitly addresses the question that haunts survivors - ¿Por qué no hiciste nada? (“Why didn’t you do anything?”) - and turns those assumptions on their head. Winner of the Audience Award and a Special Jury Mention at Festival de Málaga, Grand Jury Prize at Sheffield DocFest, Sucia is a triptych of theatre, literature, and film: an internal conversation with her brain during the assault; the self-destruction afterward; and the judicial process that follows. It’s a film about performance and believability, about the male gaze and the courtroom gaze, and about what happens when a “non-archetypal victim” refuses to perform silence.We’re joined by Professor Duncan Wheeler, Chair of Spanish Studies at the University of Leeds, President-Elect of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, and 2023 Tecmerin Medal recipient. Together we discuss Spain’s #MeToo reckoning, the 2016 La Manada case, the 2022 ley del solo sí es sí, Gisèle Pelicot’s demand that shame change sides, and the brutal statistics that end the film: there are 400,000 victims of sexual violence each year; only 5% report; and just 9.7% obtain convictions. Is art repair, exposure, or both? And what does Sucia demand of male viewers?Scholarship cited in this episode:- Maria Delgado, ed. 2026. Spanish Verbatim Theatre: Putting Justice on Trial (Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books). - Duncan Wheeler, 2020. Following Franco: Spanish Culture and Politics in Transition (Manchester: Manchester University Press). Listen now. Until next time on Palomitas.

2. 

   9 Jun 2026

   12. La chispa de la vida (Álex de la Iglesia, 2011) (with Raquel Martínez Martín)

   This week on Palomitas, we're heading to Cartagena - to the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre and the ruins of the Spanish economic crisis - with Álex de la Iglesia's searing 2011 comedy-drama, La chispa de la vida (As Luck Would Have It). We're joined by special guest Dr Raquel Martínez Martín, Teaching Associate in Modern Languages (Spanish) at the University of Strathclyde, whose recent PhD examines immobility, agency, and resistance in Spanish crisis cinema. The film follows Roberto (José Mota), a once-successful ad executive who coined a famous slogan for Coca-Cola. Now he's one of nearly five million unemployed, his benefits have run out, and he's just been humiliatingly rejected for a job. On a nostalgic trip to his honeymoon hotel, he falls from a scaffold in a museum built over Roman ruins - and is impaled through the skull by a metal rod. Immobile, conscious, and facing death, he decides to do the only thing he knows: market his own tragedy. He hires an agent, sells exclusive TV rights, and becomes a media spectacle. Salma Hayek co-stars as his wife Luisa. Winner of the Silver Shell for Best Actor at San Sebastián, La chispa is a brutal, absurdist allegory for Spain's housing bubble collapse, the politics of austerity, and the logic that turns human beings into human capital. Raquel helps us unpack why a man impaled on a spike might be the perfect metaphor for precarity. Selected scholarship cited in the episode: Allbritton, Dean. 2014. “Prime Risks: The Politics of Pain and Suffering in Spanish Crisis Cinema.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 15 (1-2): 101–15. doi:10.1080/14636204.2014.931663. Hilborn, Matthew. 2025. Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020. Oxford: Legenda. Hogan, Erin K. 2025. Patriarchy's Remains: An Autopsy of Iberian Cinematic Dark Humour. McGill-Queen's Press. Marr, Matthew J. 2019. “(Im)Mobility at the Movies: El Paro, Property and Prosthesis in Álex de La Iglesia’s La Chispa de La Vida (2011).” Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies 3 (1): 47-65. doi:10.1080/24741604.2019.1584499. Martínez Martín, Raquel. 2024. Stasis Spain: On the Representation of (Im)mobility, Agency and Resistance in Spanish Crisis Cinema (2008-2018). PhD Thesis. University of Strathclyde. Venkatesh, Vinodh. 2016. "Ethics, Spectacle, and Violence in Álex de la Iglesia's La chispa de la vida." Hispanófila 178 (1): 21-35. doi:10.1353/hsf.2016.0057.

3. 

   20 May 2026

   11. Princesas (Fernando León de Aranoa, 2005) (with Peter Watson)

   This week on Palomitas, we step into the shadows of Madrid's margins with Fernando León de Aranoa's searing 2005 drama, Princesas - a film that asks: what happens when the women who sell sex are rendered invisible by the very state that profits from their labour? We're joined by special guest Dr Peter Watson, Associate Professor in Hispanic Studies at the University of Leeds. Set against a backdrop of police raids, violent clients, and a legal system that defines prostitution as "no-trabajo" (not actual work), the film follows two women: Caye (Candela Peña), a sharp-tongued Spanish call girl saving for breast augmentation, and Zule (Micaela Nevárez), an undocumented Dominican streetwalker sending money home to her son. Their unlikely friendship becomes the film's beating heart - until Zule's HIV diagnosis forces a devastating choice. Princesas won three Goyas including Best Actress for Candela Peña and Best New Actress for Micaela Nevárez. But more than that, it forced Spain to confront its own hypocrisy: a nation with Europe's largest brothel, where nearly 90% of sex workers are immigrants - yet where those same women have no legal right to exist. Peter helps us see why the film's cruelty and its tenderness both matter. Selected scholarship cited in the episode: Murray, N. Michelle. 2014. "The politics of looking in Fernando León de Aranoa's Princesas (2005)", Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas, 11:3, https://doi.org/%E2%81%A010.1386/slac.11.3.241_1%E2%81%A0 (https://doi.org/%E2%81%A010.1386/slac.11.3.241_1%E2%81%A0) Montuori, Chad. 2012. "Tonight We’re Not Whores. Tonight We’re Princesses. Sex Work and Immigration in Spain: Fernando León de Aranoa’s Princesas", Vanderbilt E-Journal of Luso-Hispanic Studies, 8. https://doi.org/10.15695/vejlhs.v8i0.3681 (https://doi.org/10.15695/vejlhs.v8i0.3681)

4. 

   18 Mar 2026

   10. Jamón jamón (Bigas Luna, 1992) (with Santiago Fouz Hernández)

   This week on Palomitas, we get tangled in a web of desire, ham, and hyper-masculinity with Bigas Luna's outrageously provocative 1992 comedy-drama, Jamón jamón - so good they named it twice. We're joined by special guest Prof. Santiago Fouz Hernández, Professor of Hispanic Studies at Durham University and author of the definitive new study, The Films of Bigas Luna (Manchester University Press, 2025). Set in the arid Monegros region, the film follows Silvia (Penélope Cruz), a young factory worker pregnant by the wealthy but immature José Luis (Jordi Mollà). His domineering mother, Conchita (Stefania Sandrelli), hires the virile Raúl (Javier Bardem) - a ham warehouse worker and aspiring bullfighter - to seduce Silvia away. What ensues is a frenetic, darkly comic, and visually excessive exploration of sex, class, consumerism, and the clichés of Spanish identity. We unpack: 1992, "Spain's Year": How the film's release the year of the Barcelona Olympics and Seville Expo - a moment of aggressive nation-branding - shapes its satirical bite. Was Bigas Luna holding up a mirror or a funhouse mirror to the "new" Spain? Masculinity in Crisis: Raúl (the "macho ibérico") vs. José Luis (the infantilised "niño bien"). How both are performances, both are commodified, and both ultimately destructive. The Gaze: From Conchita reviewing underwear audition tapes to José Luis voyeuristically watching Raúl and Silvia, how does the film complicate the traditional male gaze through commercial and maternal looking? Food as Metaphor: Why jamón becomes everything - commodity, weapon, aphrodisiac, and national signifier. And yes, we discuss the legendary ham bone duel, directly citing Goya's Duelo a garrotazos. Scholarship cited in the episode: Fouz-Hernández, Santiago. The Films of Bigas Luna. Manchester University Press, 2025. Fouz-Hernández, Santiago, and Alfredo Martínez-Expósito. Live Flesh: The Male Body in Contemporary Spanish Cinema. I.B. Tauris, 2007. Hilborn, Matthew. Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020. Legenda, 2025. [Chapter 3 on Bigas Luna's Iberian Trilogy] Jordan, Barry, and Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas. Contemporary Spanish Cinema. Manchester University Press, 1998. Kinder, Marsha. Blood Cinema: The Reconstruction of National Identity in Spain. University of California Press, 1993.

5. 

   27 Feb 2026

   9. Flores de otro mundo (Icíar Bollaín, 1999) (with Rosi Song)

   This week on Palomitas, we journey to the heart of rural Castile to explore Icíar Bollaín's compassionate and clear-eyed comedy-drama, Flores de otro mundo [Flowers from Another World] (1999) - with special guest Prof. Rosi Song, Professor of Hispanic Studies at Durham University. The film follows three women - Patricia from the Dominican Republic, Milady from Cuba, and Mari Rosi from Bilbao - who arrive in a depopulated Spanish village as part of a "women's caravan", organised by local bachelors in search of wives and girlfriends. What unfolds is a tender, tense, and quietly radical portrait of love, loneliness, and the search for home in a Spain on the brink of profound social change. We unpack: How Bollaín balances documentary realism with fiction to capture the human stories behind Spain's demographic shifts. The film's nuanced portrayal of migration through three very different women - international, internal, and in transit. Whether Patricia's story represents "successful" integration, or something more complex: compromise, adaptation, and mutual transformation. How food, silence, and the vast Castilian landscape become characters in their own right. The film's legacy, twenty-five years on: does it still speak to debates about migration, belonging, and the España vacía/vaciada? Scholarship cited in the episode: Ballesteros, Isolina. Immigration Cinema in the New Europe. Intellect, 2015. Corbalán, Ana. "Cartografías de la otredad: Nuevo racismo en el cine español." In Nuevas aproximaciones al cine hispánico, edited by Santiago-Juan Navarro and Joan Torres-Pou. Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, 2011. Deveny, Thomas. Migration in Contemporary Hispanic Cinema. Scarecrow Press, 2012. Sánchez Noriega, José Luis. "Viajes transformadores de personajes en el cine de Icíar Bollaín." Quintana: Revista de Estudios do Departamento de Historia da Arte, no. 20, 1-11 (2021). Santaolalla, Isabel. "Body Matters: Immigrants in Recent Spanish, Italian and Greek Cinemas." In European Cinema in Motion, edited by Daniela Berghahn and Claudia Sternberg. Palgrave, 2010. Marín, Karmentxu. "'Caravana de mujeres' para los solteros de Plan." El País, 1985.

6. 

   7 Jan 2026

   8. Belle époque (Fernando Trueba, 1992) (with Peter Watson)

   Dr. Peter Watson analyzes Fernando Trueba's *Belle Époque*, exploring its themes of freedom, gender roles, and historical nostalgia within the context of pre-Civil War Spain in this interview episode.

7. 

   1 Dec 2025

   7. El laberinto del fauno (Guillermo del Toro, 2006) (with Ann Davies)

   Professor Ann Davies analyzes Guillermo del Toro's *Pan's Labyrinth*, exploring its intertwining of fantasy and historical trauma in post-Civil War Spain, in this interview episode.

8. 

   20 Aug 2025

   6. Fe de etarras (Borja Cobeaga, 2017) (with Alison Posey)

   Host [Host Name] and Dr. Alison Posey, Assistant Professor of Spanish, explore Borja Cobeaga's "Fe de etarras," dissecting its satirical critique of nationalism and terrorism.

9. 

   8 Jul 2025

   5. Documentaries on Spanish Feminisms (with Abigail Loxham)

   Dr. Abigail Loxham analyzes two Spanish documentaries on Netflix that highlight the fight for gender justice and expose institutional violence, in this interview episode.

10. 

    12 May 2025

    4. Mi querida cofradía (Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz, 2018) (with Erin K Hogan)

    Matthew discusses Mi querida cofradía (Marta Díaz, 2018) with Dr Erin K. Hogan, Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Think feminist farce, dark humour, Catholic imagery, and challenges to patriarchy, as laughter becomes a tool of resistance and transformation. What does it take for a woman to become leader? Scholarship cited in the episode: (For the books, ask your library - university and/or public - to buy a copy! Trust us: librarians are always eager for requests!) Evans, Jo. 2011. '⁠Almodóvar’s ‘Others’: Spanish Women Film-Makers, Masquerade, and Maternity⁠ (https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10045616/)'. In A Companion to Spanish Women’s Studies, ed. by Xon de Ros and Geraldine Hazbun (Tamesis), pp. 329-42. Hogan, Erin K. 2024. Patriarchy's Remains: An Autopsy of Iberian Cinematic Dark Humour (https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Patriarchy_s_Remains.html?id=_BDtEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y) (McGill-Queen's University Press). Hogan, Erin K. 2020. 'Specular Comedies of Manslaughter by Inés París and Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz (https://doi.org/10.14321/jgendsexustud.46.1-2.0215)', Journal of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 46 (1-2), 215-236. Hogan, Erin K. and García Puente, María. 2019. 'The Passion of Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz: A Conversation with the Filmmaker (https://www.academia.edu/38515704/The_Passion_of_Marta_D%C3%ADaz_de_Lope_D%C3%ADaz_A_Conversation_with_the_Filmmaker)'. In Gynocine: A History of Spanish Women's Cinema, ed. by Barbara Zecchi (University of Massachusetts Press), pp. 1-16. Parés, Luis E. 2019. 'Comedies with Corpses but Without Weeping or Mourning (https://doi.org/10.31009/cc.2019.v7.i13.02)', Comparative Cinema, 7:13, pp. 24-38.

11. 

    31 Mar 2025

    3. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006) (with Prof Sarah Wright & Dr Miguel García)

    In episode three, Matthew chats all things Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006) with not one but two extra-special guests: Prof Sarah Wright (Professor of Hispanic Studies and Screen Arts, Royal Holloway) and Dr Miguel García (Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, Bristol University). Scholarship cited in the episode: (For the books, ask your library - university and/or public - to buy a copy! Trust us: librarians are always eager for requests!) - Hilborn, Matthew. 2025. Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020. Legenda. - Kinder, Marsha. 2009. ‘All About the Brothers: Retroseriality in Almodóvar’s Cinema’, in All About Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema, ed. by Brad Epps and Despina Kakoudaki (Minnesota University Press), pp. 267–94. - Medhurst. Andy. 2009. ‘Heart of Farce: Almodóvar’s Comic Complexities’, in All About Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema, ed. by Brad Epps and Despina Kakoudaki (University of Minnesota Press), pp. 118–38. - Sánchez-Arce, Ana María. 2020. The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar. Manchester University Press.

12. 

    7 Feb 2025

    2. Ocho apellidos vascos (Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, 2014) (with Fiona Noble)

    In episode two, Matthew chats with Dr Fiona Noble (Lecturer in Spanish, Stirling University) about Ocho apellidos vascos (Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, 2014), the highest-grossing Spanish film of all time. Also featuring exclusive one-on-one interviews with Martínez-Lázaro himself, as well as co-scriptwriter Borja Cobeaga. Scholarship cited in the episode: For the books, ask your library - university and/or public - to buy a copy! Trust us: librarians are always eager for requests! Noble, Fiona (2017). ''Marriage itself as theater': The performative politics of marriage in Ocho apellidos vascos' (https://doi.org/10.1386/ijis.30.3.199_1) Noble, Fiona (2020). Subversive Spanish Cinema - The Politics of Performance. Bloomsbury (https://doi.org/10.1080/17411548.2022.2076513) Hilborn, Matthew. Film Comedy and Spain. Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020. Legenda (https://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Film-Comedy-Spain) Buse, Peter & Triana-Toribio, Nuria. 2015. 'Ocho apellidos vascos and the Comedy of Minor Differences'. Romance Quarterly (https://doi.org/10.1080/08831157.2015.1068637)

13. 

    14 Jan 2025

    1. La llamada (Los Javis, 2017) (with Mary Farrelly)

    In episode one of Palomitas, Dr Matthew Hilborn (Government of Ireland Research Fellow in Spanish Studies, UCD) and Dr Mary Farrelly (Assistant Professor of Spanish Studies, UCD) discuss La llamada (2017), the film version of the hit Spanish musical, written and directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. Scholarship cited in the episode: For the books, ask your library - university and/or public - to buy a copy! Trust us: librarians are always eager for requests! Farrelly, M. (2021). Seen and Unseen: Women, Spirituality and the Gaze on the Spanish Stage and Screen (https://doi.org/10.1080/24741604.2021.1873587). García López, M. (2024). Millennial Screen Cultures in Spain: Queering the Mainstream. Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies (https://doi.org/10.1080/24741604.2024.2392416) Wheeler, D. (2018). The Musical in Spain. Hispanic Research Journal (https://doi.org/10.1080/14682737.2018.1444425) Louis, A., Loxham, A. (2024). Mediating Contemporary Transfeminisms and Femininities in Veneno and Ellas. In: Femininity and Feminism in Spanish TV Dramas (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64369-9_7) Sánchez Olmos, C. (2023). Exploring transmedia storytelling through original songs in award-winning Spanish films. (https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003194347)

Who has been a guest on Palomitas

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Peter Watson
• Ann Davies
• Dr Alison Posey

Podcast Authority Score: 9 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

17

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.