One of the occupational hazards of becoming a translator: not seeing the film you want to.
So all this month is some sort of dance and music festival here, which seems to include films, somehow: every night there´s a music concert, and dance concert, and a free movie playing somewhere in the city, usually in an open-air setting. All the listings appear in the paper.

One day I look at the listings, and to my delight I see the title, "Tocando el Viento, un film de Marc Berman." And I think to myself, "hmm...that title looks like a pretty decent translation of the title Touching the Void. And wasn´t Mark Berman the director?"

Tocando= touching

Viento= the wind

I begin that morning to spread the word to my classmates that this cool film about a mountaineering accident and incredible survival story is playing tonight, and wouldn´t it be fun if we all went, etc, etc. One by one, they all turned me down. Well, I was feeling particularly intrepid and decided that those wet blankets weren´t going to stop me, so I walked up to the plaza where the film was playing.

I got my first indication that things were not as they had appeared to me when I looked up at the screen and saw Pete Postlethwaite talking to Ewan McGregor, who was holding a trumpet in his hands.


"I didn´t know Ewan McGregor was in Touching...the...Oh."

Tocando= playing

Viento= brass/woodwind instrument

The film that ensued (I didn´t want to take the walk of shame all the way back home just yet) was "Brassed Off," as I later came to know, about English miners who, despite the fact that their mine is closing, enter themselves in a brass band contest. Well, it didn´t have mountains, or shattered legs, or guys falling into crevasses, or even the hint of crampons and axes, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless and would actually recommend the film to any fan of Mr. McGregor, Mr. Postlethwaite, British cinema, or brass band music.