El Hombre y la Plancha

Iron Man is the name of this quirky little Spanish film that was the recent winner of the 48hfp (48 hour film project) in Barcelona.  It won a number of awards and, for reasons I cannot really understand, it makes me smile. 

There are English subtitles that make it easy for beginning Spanish students to understand but, before you show it to your students, be aware that there is one rude hand gesture and the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the film.  There may or may not be implied homosexuality in the film also.  (I'm not sure.  I'm notoriously dense about these sorts of things.  It's very subtle regardless.)  You know your district norms and your students best, so choose wisely.

The movie is about five minutes long and is mostly in Spanish.  One fun activity with beginning students might be to get them to figure out when Spanish is being spoken and when another language is being spoken.  I heard Italian spoken by one character and another language (Czech maybe?) spoken by another.  It could be a fun activity.

You might also want to get the students to generate a list of vocabulary for appliance pets once they finish watching the film.  (Yes, appliance pets.  That will make sense after you watch the film; I promise.)

Whether you can share it with your students or not, I hope you enjoy Iron Man, amigos míos.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK