Platillos volantes (2003)

Director:

Óscar Aibar

Writers:

Óscar Aibar (writer)
Jorge Guerricaechevarría (writer)

Release Date:

7 November 2003 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | UFO | Alien | Based On True Story

Cast

Ángel de Andrés López	...	José (as Ángel de Andrés)
Jordi Vilches	...	Juan
José Luis Adserías	...	Amador
Àngels Poch	...	Antonia
Macarena Gómez	...	María
Berta Ojea	...	Sra. Botifoll
Juan Margallo	...	Boris
Leo Bassi	...	Sr. Karma
Pere Ponce	...	Individuo extraño 1
Paco Hidalgo	...	Individuo extraño 2
Enrique Villén	...	Ufólogo 1
Jordi Banacolocha
Manel Castillejos
Milena Montes	...	Madre de Juan
Pep Cortés	...	Padre de Juan

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Catalan | Spanish

Color:

Color

Certification:

Spain:13

Compelling drama based on two different real world UFO cases

I borrowed this from Netflix, while browsing the foreign films section. It listed it as being based on a famous case in Brazil where 2 UFO contactees (people who think aliens have contacted and talked to them) were found dead wearing lead masks. Which I had read about, and was intrigued it got turned into a movie.

Alas, Netflix kind of got it wrong. It's only very loosed based on that (mostly in that there were 2 people involved), it's actually perhaps more derived from the UMMO case, which was mostly in Spain. Basically people got mysterious notes and such purporting to be from aliens, along with technical info on UFOs and some supposedly advanced technological devices.

Anyway, the movie deals with two men. One is a young man who seemingly has a decent life. Decent job, attractive girlfriend, friends. But he has a thing for UFOs. And he suffers from some other personal problems. While his girlfriend is hot, she's also a tease, and he is preyed upon by a middle aged fat women who is after his body. He doesn't like it, but nevertheless, after being led on but then rejected by his GF, has to slake his lust with her.

He meets another UFO buff, who also has a pretty good life. Solid job as a machinist (or something in a factory), but something of an idealist and an outcast. They bond, and they go to a couple of UFO events. Then they run into trouble, and well, any more and I would give away the ending. But it's both unexpected and not.

Kind of a long movie, but it really does do a great job of portraying what the whole UFO contactee scene is like (Even though it's set in 70s Spain, it's little different than the contactee scene in the US). There's lots of little nice touches in the film. For instance, lights flickering mysteriously in some scenes. And while it's very much fiction, it's also very much based on what actual contactees are like. If you've read Jaques Vallee's Confrontions/Dimensions/Revelations trilogy, you will see it conforms exactly to his observations of them (which also tally with my personal experiences of them).

The acting is excellent, the actors really bring their characters to life, even the ones with small roles, as is the cinematography (unfortunately, the DVD I got was the Full Frame version, but the movie really looked nice). It's not a comedy, but there are a few amusing bits.

I'm not sure most people will like it, but if you are familiar with Jacques Vallee's work, it's almost a must see. People who like personal dramas will also probably like it. There's no action or suspense, really, and the supernatural aspects are more puzzling than anything else.