Since the mid-twentieth century, and also since the post-war period, Spain has experienced a geographical change: the rural exodus. Crowds of people (those who could) emigrated from the villages to the cities in search of a better life, of opportunities that they would not have found between the earth and the tree. While this phenomenon shaped the concept of “empty Spain” (which continues today in the form of digitization and abandonment of primary services), it is a term that was forged across much of the first world as a result of the Industrial Revolution, which affected even stronger in our country due to the autarchy of the Franco regime. Impoverishment, estrangement between social classes, landlords who dominate the peasants at will… Cinema was imbued with all this, as a good reflection of the real life that is, for x-ray one of the worst periods in our history and transform it into authentic jewels of the seventh art.
10 jewels of rural cinema about emptied Spain
1 ‘like beasts’
Rodrigo Sorogoyen, together with his friend Isabel Peña, moves away from the urban thriller he perfected with ‘Que Dios nos perdone’, ‘El reino’ and ‘Antidisturbios’ to turn his camera to empty Spain. ‘As Bestas’ talks about stubbornness in a peasant key, with farmers closer to beasts than to men. Luis Zahera gives another masterclass (and they’re going…) where tension, his trademark, will increase until it explodes, taking away friendships, blood ties and precarious contracts with wind companies that impoverish the earth. Sorogoyen completes the message with a beautiful reflection on foreignness and the feeling of belonging.
Come bestas in eCartelera
Two “The Language of Butterflies”
Maestro José Luis Cuerda has already approached rural life from the most absurd comic perspective with “Amanece que no es poco”, but has decided to do the same by switching to a more dramatic register with “The Language of Butterflies,” a heartwarming fable about friendship and education, all overshadowed by the terrifying shadows of the Civil War. The friendship between Moncho and his teacher Don Gregorio (the historian Fernando Fernán Gómez), though pure and genuine, falters as Spain faltered in 1936, at the dawn of fratricidal tragedy. Alejandro Amenábar put the soundtrack to finish breaking our hearts.
The language of butterflies on eCartelera
3 ‘Alcarràs’
One of the phenomena of 2022. Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, candidate for Spanish representative at the Oscars and applause for Carla Simón. After ‘Summer 1993’, the Catalan director takes advantage of non-professional actors and actresses to capture the very essence of life in ‘Alcarràs’, building a family that works against the clock to their last harvest before it falls into the hands of evil cold and metallic harvesters. He reflects on the benefits of “progress” (it depends on what and for whom) and invokes an agriculture that dies year after year.
Alcarràs in eCartelera
4 ‘what burns’
And from Catalan dramas to Galician dramas. Oliver Laxe signs, in a soft but decisive way, ‘What burns’, a small business that went unjustly unnoticed despite its many awards (including two Goyas). Amador Arias, another non-professional actor, is released from prison after serving a sentence for causing a fire. His new life must keep pace with the slow pace of nature and his elderly mother, Benedicta Sánchez. The fire will meet the grass to draw up a symbiotic pact between the communion with the environment and the inner ardor of each one.
What burns in eCartelera
5 ‘The Minimal Island’
because the story remained ‘L’isola minima’, one of the peaks of contemporary national cinema. Many of us were surprised when we saw Javier Gutiérrez (at that time still the legendary Satur of “Aguila Roja” and secondary in comedies) and Raúl Arévalo (also known for things like “Gordos” or “Cousins”) in separate roles like inspectors Juan and Pepe with this dramatic-rural caliber, with opposing ideologies and with so much weight framed within the Spanish neo noir. Alberto Rodríguez’s talent in the national thriller is here to stay, as demonstrated by ‘El hombre de las mil caras’ and the recent ‘Modelo 77’.
The minimal island of eCartelera
6 ‘The Spirit of the Hive’
In the 70s and 80s, Víctor Erice will film two authentic totems on the rural decline that post-war Spain has left behind. Let’s talk about ‘The South’ and of course ‘The Spirit of the Beehive’. A very young Ana Torrent sees how the screening of ‘Doctor Frankenstein’ raises more questions for her than her sister will ever be able to answer. Children’s conspiracies mix with a dirty and sad setting to give life to an authentic Spanish jewel with images for posterity.
The spirit of the hive at eCartelera
7 “The Holy Innocents”
Mario Carmus will adapt the homonymous novel by Miguel Delibes to shape the best film of his filmography. ‘Los santos inocentes’ is a heartbreaking portrait of Franco’s Spain in the 60s. The landowners, elegant gentlemen of double standards who turn a deaf ear to the suffering of the peasants (the brilliant Alfredo Landa and Paco Rabal), enjoy the privileges it gives them their social class. Camus is based on the biblical passage The Massacre of the Innocents to exonerate and avenge some compatriots without a future, slaves, without hope and thoroughly weary that, like redemptive fire, they see their lives being turned upside down in a vengeful, unexpected and, yes, innocent act. Until then, you know: “See, hear and shut up”.
The Holy Innocents in eCartelera
8 ‘Fiancée’
Of all the adaptations of the famous Federico García Lorca (including “The House of Bernarda Alba” by Mario Camus and “Bodas de Sangre” by Carlos Saura), It may be that ‘La novia’, by Paula Ortiz, is the one that collects the most acclaim in terms of success. Twelve Goya nominations (he took two) were the reward for a careful sensitivity when it came to bringing the pages to the screen, a truthful portrait of the vengeful family rancor and the spectacular work of Inma Cuesta, as well as Asier Etxeandia and Alex Garcia. A dangerous challenge far exceeded.
The bride in eCartelera
9 ‘The Strange Journey’
Fernando Fernán Gómez turned to directing (and based himself on an argument by Luis García Berlanga) to create ‘The strange journey’ which, in fact, involves a very rare descent into sordid provincial towns where racketeering and convenience are the order of the day. Drinking from great classics like “Psychosis” or “Night of the Hunter” to form a powerful visual style, Fernán Gómez emerged triumphant from drawing a black comedy with hints of marked Spanish joke, based on gossip and the vain monotony of every good city .
The strange journey in eCartelera
10 ‘the olive’
With a filmography that includes ‘Te doy mis ojos’, ‘También la lluvia’ and ‘Maixabel’, Icíar Bollaín has nothing to prove to anyone and, despite this, he has shaped ‘El olivo’, a very intimate demonstration that roots exist and bind us more than we would like. Anna Castillo, whose role earned her the Goya for best new actress at just 23, plays Alma, a young woman very close to her grandfather who will move heaven and earth to find the olive tree that her family sold to make money . Despite having a somewhat simple and naive moral, ‘El olivo’ is a painful but precious return to the origins, family and earthly.
The olive tree in eCartelera
Taking into account history and tradition, there are many Spanish productions that address this theme. And in many genres. If we look at comedy, we have it all. From the absurd and ingenious ‘Amanece, que no es poco’, with a José Luis Cuerda who tinges the misadventures of some villagers with surrealism, even “La vaquilla”, whose warlike context was useful for satirizing and denouncing the customs of deep Spain; passing, of course, through the more recent comedies that try to get away from landismo and make the most of the clash between the rural and the urban, such as ‘El pregón’ or ‘Villaviciosa de al lado’. Within the thriller we have the burly “Tarde para la ira”, directorial debut of Raúl Arévalo, or “The Seventh Day”, by the great Carlos Saura. To highlight the new and extremist contribution, ‘Cerdita’. In the drama he emerges with ‘Jamón, jamón’, a new prose, 90s and sexy, but without forgetting the identity ‘Volver’ of Pedro Almodóvar or indisputable classics such as ‘El sur’, by Víctor Erice. Even if it’s an incomprehensible offer this time we choose 10 authentic jewels that represent all the harshness of rural liferecent or ancient, dramatic or comic.
What is clear is that rural life will continue to be an ideal breeding ground for collecting stories about the human condition or its strange and compulsive relationship with nature. Stories that will continue to have the usual cainism of the average Spanish, full of scabies, grotesque, jokes, slyness, slyness and picaresque.. Now, with the deplorable treatment it receives from public administrations, the rural world develops new narratives that will lead to innovative stories. And as these disappear, others will arise. And so on forever, until we destroy the planet… or it destroys us.
Source: E Cartelera
Elizabeth Cabrera is an author and journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a talent for staying up-to-date on the latest news and trends, Elizabeth is dedicated to delivering informative and engaging articles that keep readers informed on the latest developments.
