Malena Is a Name from a Tango

Malena Is a Name from a Tango is a 1996 drama film directed by Gerardo Herrero from a screenplay by Senel Paz based on the novel by Almudena Grandes. It stars Ariadna Gil.

Plot

The plot concerns about the romantic and sexual endeavours of Malena, a victimised and rebellious woman contrasting to her twin sister Reina, and then about the mother-son relationship of Malena with her son. Malena was gifted however a talisman by her grandfather back when she was 10.

Production

An adaptation of the novel by Almudena Grandes, the screenplay was penned by Senel Paz. It is a Spanish-French-German co-production by Alta Films, Tornasol Films, Blue Dahlia Production, La Sept Cinema, and Road Movies Produktionen. Shooting locations included the San Julián estate, Mula, Águilas, and Madrid.

Release

Distributed by Alta Films, the film was theatrically released in Spain on 12 April 1996.
The film was the fifth highest grossing Spanish film of the year with a gross of 188 million Spanish Pesetas.

Reception

Jonathan Holland of Variety deemed the film to be a "well-intentioned, provocatively moralizing women's pic that ends up as second-rate melodrama".
Luis Martínez of El País deemed that, efforts from a "magnetic" Ariadna Gil notwithstanding, the films "ends up as an uneven and quite chatty journey into the interiors of this disease called life".