Who is Amalia Ulman, director of EL PLANETA? Scammer? Genius? Provocateur?

AFS presents EL PLANETA, the debut feature film by Amalia Ulman November 3 -11 at the AFS Cinema.

Part of our Best of the Fests series, visual artist Ulman mines the devastation of post financial-crisis Spain to craft this imaginative and biting contemporary mother-daughter comedy, a selection of the New Directors/New Films and Sundance Film Festivals. With hilarious turns by Ulman and her real-life mother, Ale Ulman; a down-on-her luck designer and her one-time socialite mother try to keep up their decadent lifestyle in spite of their rapid descent from the bourgeoisie.

Here AFS Associate Programmer Jazmyne Moreno asks the question:

Just Who Is Amalia Ulman?

“Scammer.”

“Genius.”

“Provocateur.”

A few years ago, a read of the headlines and Instagram mentions would leave the uninitiated just as confused as intrigued.

Did she really have a boob job for art?

Was there a pregnancy for the ‘gram? 

And why the pigeon?

“Amalia Ulman’s performances are like spin-offs or alternate realities.” – Fiona Duncan, SSENSE

Now, the filmmaker behind EL PLANETA has been lauded as “a brand new, totally modern, cinematic voice” by Miranda July and received critical praise for what Vulture’s Rachel Handler calls “a 79-minute black-and-white art-house treat that rings of Hal Hartley, Hong Sang-soo, and Heartbreakers.”

What a difference a few years makes.

Perfectly encapsulating the malaise of the times, EL PLANETA with its mother-daughter scammer duo living life on the edge in the sleepy resort town of Gijon, Spain is a cleverly wry, modern reworking of Lubitsch that will leave you asking, “just who is Amalia Ulman and when can I see more from her?”

For more on Amalia Ulman visit: https://amaliaulman.eu/