Frontera (HKJFF 2026) (2026) review, cast and showtimes

Name: Frontera (HKJFF 2026)
Released: 2026-11-10
Duration: 101 min
Cast: Miki Esparbé, Maria Rodríguez Soto, Asier Etxeandia, Bruna Cusí, Kevin Janssens

What it is about

1943. Franco has blocked the path of the Jews fleeing Nazi oppression over the Pyrenees mountains. At the border crossing in a small village, Manel Grau, a civil servant with a Republican past, decides to go against the orders of his superiors and aid the refugees across the border, with the help of Juliana, a fellow inhabitant of the village, and Jérome a French smuggler. Between them, they will start a crusade to help as many Jews as they possibly can. It is then that Manel will find himself embroiled in a dangerous odyssey. One that will awaken in him and his wife, Mercè, old ghosts of the still-recent Spanish Civil War

What to expect

Judith Colell’s Spanish-language drama is set in a single Pyrenean village in 1943, where a civil servant with a Republican past decides to ignore Franco’s orders and help Jewish refugees cross the border. The movie keeps its focus tight — one crossing, a handful of people, the constant threat of being caught — and spends its 101 minutes on the practical and psychological cost of that choice rather than on sweeping wartime spectacle. Miki Esparbé carries the lead as Manel Grau, with Maria Rodríguez Soto and Asier Etxeandia in key supporting roles. The Spanish Civil War hangs over the characters as a wound that has never closed, which gives the present-day risk a more personal edge. This is a Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival 2026 selection, screening in Spanish with English subtitles. The facts do not list a certificate, so younger viewers are an open question, but the tone is sober throughout.

Cast