Director Ana Asensio will discuss her film, “Most Beautiful Island,” following its April 27 opening at Nebraska’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.
The film and “Oh Lucy” are new features coming to the Ross on April 27.
“Most Beautiful Island” marks Asensio’s directorial debut. The film is a psychological thriller set in the world of undocumented female immigrants seeking to make a life in New York City.
Shot on Super 16 millimeter film, “Most Beautiful Island” chronicles a single harrowing day in the life of Luciana, a young immigrant woman struggling to make ends meet while striving to escape her past. As the day unfolds, Luciana is whisked through a series of troublesome and unforeseeable extremes. Before the day is done, she becomes the central participant in a cruel game that places lives at risk for the perverse entertainment of a privileged few.
“Most Beautiful Island” won the Grand Jury Prize at South by Southwest 2017 and is a nominee for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Asensio is an international actor, writer and director from Spain who currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has acting credits in five films, has produced and performed in three contemporary one-woman shows and toured them around the world. She has worked in Spanish TV drama series, directed contemporary plays and adapted a best-seller Spanish novel into a one-woman show.
Her appearance at the Ross is part of the Norman A. Geske Cinema Showcase.
Also opening April 27 is “Oh Lucy” by writer-director Atsuko Hirayanagi.
The film follows Setsuke, a single, emotionally unfulfilled woman, seemingly stuck in a meaningless life in Tokyo. At least until she’s convinced to enroll in an unorthodox English class that requires her to wear a blonde wig and take on an American alter ego named Lucy.
This new identity awakens something dormant in Setsuko, and she quickly develops romantic feelings for her American instructor, John (played by Josh Hartnett). Those feelings lead her on a quest halfway across the world, wading into a world of tattoo parlor and seedy motels to preserve the dream and promise of Lucy.
Both “Oh Lucy” and “Most Beautiful Island” are not rated and show through May 3 at the Ross.
Show times are available online or by calling 402-472-5353.
