Brilliant and touching

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

El Bola, a 12 year old boy named Pablo (Juan Jose Ballesta) suffers problems at home . Embarrassed by his family life, he avoids becoming close to classmates. The arrival of a new boy (Pablo Galan) at school changes his attitude towards his classmates, and friendship. Pablo befriends Alfredo , and both of whom share amusing as well as unhappy experiences . The heart of the story is the change in El Bola's life, at almost all levels, after befriending this new classmate . El Bola or Pablo suffers bruises and scars but he is too afraid to confess that has been beating . Pablo does not come to school for a week and Alfredo and his his father (Alberto Jimenez) become deeply concerned for him .Dramatic film dealing with domestic violence , friendship , parents-sons relationship and many other things . This is a perceptible and enjoyable portrait of a pair of big city kids, reminiscent of François Truffaut's 400 blows (1959). The picture achieved big success - both public and critical - and getting several prizes as national : Goya Award as international : Prix la Présidence Belge De l'Union Européenne 2001 and Nominé Pour Grand Prix Festival de Montpellier . Agreeable performances by entire cast as Juan Jose Ballesta as a deeply abusive boy at 12-year-old raised in a violent and sordid environment , Alberto Jimenez as a fun-loving Bohemian daddy and Manuel Moron as a tyrannical father . Colorful and appropriate cinematography by Juan Carlos Gomez . Emotive and adequate musical score by Eduardo Arbide , Achero Mañas' usual musician .The motion picture was compellingly directed by Achero Mañas , a prestigious actor and filmmaker . Achero first followed in the steps of his mother, actress Paloma Lorena who played in two of his films, and his father , a notorious producer named Alfredo Mañas , but he soon turned from thespian to filmmaker. He made three shorts before meeting a big hit as ¨El Bola¨ that is dedicated to Laura Mañas . His second feature ¨Noviembre¨ (2003) also garnered least five awards but he was less successful with ¨Blackwhite¨ (2004). After five years in the wilderness, Mañas is making a come back with "Anything You Want" (2010). Rating : Better than average , well worth watching .

Unfortunately, child abuse is still something that is seen these days, even in countries so much developed as Europe.In this case, El Bola is the story of a kid physically abused by his strict and violent father. The movie does a great job to show the whole panorama of this complicated situation. El Bola's life is surrounded by misery, his family is a chaos, his mother is submissive to her aggressive husband, his situation at school is not better, and in general, the movie shows how being abused causes the abused kid to fail is every aspect of life.El Bola meets a new friend, which turns out to have a great and loving family. This is part of the other part of the problematic: how normal families fail to act appropriately when they find out a child they know is beaten up by his parents.In summary, the movie exposes this hard topic with class and elegance, sometimes showing very brute and harsh scenes, that nonetheless, are necessary to shake up the audience's feelings and make them understand the importance this matter has.

An excellent film which exposes a very real problem via a neo-realistic film style. This film achieves something the postmodern style could never have achieved with all the spectacular colors, effects, sounds in the world. This film looks abuse in the face and shows that there is a way out, if there's someone there to help. This is a must-see film, but if your Spanish isn't doing so hot, the English subtitles will do very little in helping to understand the film. If you can, don't use the subtitles at all, as they'll more likely distract than help (at least that was the case for me). Anyway, check out this extremely moving and beautifully real film.

Well, after watching this movie, i felt that this one would be my favorite for a long time. Now three years later nothing about that has changed. Let's check how El Bola's life has been changed...I've also seen movies like "boys of st Vincent" and "song for a raggy boy", but this movie about child abuse is just different. The movies i mentioned have great (young)actors too, but this movie make you realize that this might be your neighbour boy's story. If you start watching the movie, you feel that something's wrong with El Bola ("Pellet") but you just don't know what. And i guess that's one of the strengths of this movie: it's not only told in a natural way, but it's rather suggestive. And a lot of people are disappointed that the movie's just cut after 88 minutes without a proper ending, but i think that's the way it goes in real life too : a life/story is like a roller coaster: it has it ups and downs, but the only thing that matters is where it endsBut this movie wouldn't be the same without the strong soundtrack (highly recommended) and it's young cast. El Bola is played by Juan José Ballesta (my favorite young actor) who also appears in the interesting and touching "planta 4a". He has also a very small role in a movie a mentioned before : "song for a raggy boy" (as the young friend of the teacher in the flash backs)