A Master of Unease: Free Kiyoshi Kurosawa Retrospective Lights Up Las Palmas

If your idea of a perfect summer evening involves stepping out of the warm Canarian night and into a world of psychological thrillers, techno-horror and quiet family despair, then clear your diary for the last week of July. The beloved Semana de Cine Japonés returns to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for its 24th edition, and this year the spotlight falls entirely on the modern master Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Organised by the local film society Asociación de Cine Vértigo and hosted in the stunning colonial setting of Casa de Colón, this is a cinephile’s dream. The entire cycle, titled “Kiyoshi Kurosawa: inquietante extrañeza” (uncanny strangeness), is a deep dive into the work of a director who has spent decades exploring isolation, identity crises and the fragile bonds that hold society together. Best of all, it is a gift to the city: entry is free for every single screening.

A Five-Film Journey Through a Disturbed World

The programme is a compact but powerful retrospective, showcasing five key films that map the evolution of Kurosawa’s unique vision. The journey begins with his late-90s cult classic Cure (1997), a hypnotic police procedural that slowly unravels into a terrifying examination of evil. It is a film that gets under your skin and stays there, setting the tone perfectly for the week ahead.

The retrospective then moves into the digital age with Pulse (Kairo, 2001), a chilling ghost story that predicted the isolating effects of the internet long before social media took over our lives. The tone shifts dramatically with Tokyo Sonata (2008), a poignant and unexpectedly tender family drama about a salaryman who loses his job and hides it from his family, revealing the quiet desperation behind a nation’s economic miracle. The programme brings us closer to the present with Wife of a Spy (2020), a stylish period thriller set in wartime Kobe, before culminating in his latest work, Cloud (2024), a contemporary thriller that continues his fascination with modern anxieties.

An Opening Talk to Set the Scene

The week kicks off with more than just a film. On Monday 27 July, you have the chance to arrive early for a special introductory conference at 18:30, one hour before the first screening. Jesús García Hermosa, a member of the organising Asociación de Cine Vértigo, will deliver a talk with the intriguing title “El futuro ya no es lo que era: de la década perdida al colapso digital” (“The future is not what it used to be: from the lost decade to the digital collapse”).

This lecture promises to provide rich context for the films, linking Kurosawa’s recurring themes of societal breakdown and technological unease to Japan’s recent history. It is the perfect appetiser before the main course, the screening of Cure at 19:30. The talk will be in Spanish, but the ideas and cinematic references are universal, offering a valuable lens through which to view the entire week’s programme.

Your Evening in Historic Vegueta

The venue itself is part of the magic. Casa de Colón, tucked away on Calle Colón in the Vegueta old town, is a beautiful former governor’s house where Christopher Columbus is said to have stayed. Its atmospheric patios and wooden galleries provide a stunning backdrop for an evening of cinema. The district is the historic soul of Las Palmas, and a stroll through its cobbled lanes before or after a film is an experience in itself.

Getting there is straightforward. Vegueta is easily walkable from the nearby Triana shopping district, and several Guaguas Municipales bus lines connect it to the rest of the city. The area is packed with excellent tapas bars and restaurants, making it simple to combine the screening with a relaxed dinner. The screenings are shown in Japanese with Spanish subtitles, a standard format for this long-running festival that makes the films accessible to the local audience and international residents with some Spanish alike.

Why This Matters for Film Lovers on the Island

For digital nomads, expats and culturally curious tourists, this event is a hidden gem. It offers a world-class cultural experience completely free of charge, in a uniquely Canarian setting. You are not just watching a film; you are participating in a local tradition that has been bringing challenging, beautiful cinema to the island for nearly a quarter of a century. The intimate, cinephile atmosphere is a world away from a multiplex, attracting a friendly mix of local buffs, students and international visitors.

This is a rare opportunity to see Kurosawa’s work on a big screen, the way it is meant to be seen. His films, with their masterful use of empty space, long takes and creeping dread, lose much of their power on a laptop. Sitting in a darkened room in a 500-year-old building, surrounded by fellow travellers into the strange and the sublime, is the perfect way to experience his “uncanny strangeness” for the first or the fiftieth time.