ANITA TAKES A CHANCE

You've met Amelie. Now enter Anita, heroine of this offbeat Euro-romance. She's a waifish fifty-something who has spent the last 34 years of her adult life employed behind the ticket counter of a Barcelona movie house, where she reckons she's beheld 2,424 feature films (as you will feel after several days of the CIFF!). Given two weeks off with extra pay, Anita is at a loss, being happier sitting in the dark than at the beach. But when she reports back to work she discovers the reason for her unexpected holiday ? the cinema is undergoing demolition to make way for a modern multiplex. Anita has in fact been laid off, obliged to take early retirement because she doesn't fit the new management's image. Unable to get over being idle, Anita keeps returning daily to the old box-office address. Ever the spectator, she sets up a folding-chair overlooking the construction site and continues watching the action. And thus Anita begins to develop an attraction to a new leading man, the bulldozer operator on the excavation. Soon they're trysting clandestinely in the boss' trailer, even though Anita's rugged lover makes no secret of the fact that he's married. One door has just shut behind Anita; where will this new one lead? Shot against the backdrop of director Ventura Pons' beloved Barcelona, ANITA TAKES A CHANCE is a witty take on the highs, lows and intermissions of middle-aged love. (In Spanish with English subtitles)