The Holy Innocents
Film poster
SpanishLos santos inocentes
Directed byMario Camus
Written by
Produced byJulián Mateos
Starring
CinematographyHans Burman
Music byAntón García Abril
Release date
  • 4 April 1984 (1984-04-04)
Running time
105 minutes
CountrySpain
LanguageSpanish
Box office523,904,385 ₧[1]

The Holy Innocents (Spanish: Los santos inocentes) is a 1984 Spanish drama film directed by Mario Camus based on Miguel Delibes' novel of the same title which stars Alfredo Landa and Francisco Rabal. The plot explores the lives of landless labourers scraping by in an aristocratic estate in 1960s Extremadura.[2]

The film earned wide critical acclaim both in the domestic and the international front,[3] also becoming the highest-grossing Spanish film in Spain at the time.[4]

In the 1984 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Special Mention. Rabal and Landa shared the Best Actor Award at the same festival.[5] It was voted the third best Spanish film by professionals and critics in 1996 Spanish cinema centenary.

Plot

Paco and Régula live on a rural estate owned by an absent marchioness with their three children. Nieves works as a maid in the big house, Quirce is doing his military service, and Charito is severely handicapped. The parents accept the repeated humiliations of their position as dependents at the whim of the owners and the estate manager, but Nieves and Quirce aim for a better life. The family is joined by Régula's mentally handicapped brother Azarías, sacked from another estate, who loves birds. The owner's son Ivan often comes back to the estate for two reasons: he is conducting an affair with the manager's bored wife Pura and he is fanatical about shooting birds. Paco, whom he forces up a tree to decoy pigeons, falls and breaks a leg. Then he tries using the simple Azarías and, in a fit of pique, shoots the man's pet jackdaw. Next time Azarías is sent up a tree to work decoys, he drops a noose round Ivan's neck and hangs him. Mentally a child, he is shut up in a secure asylum.

Cast

  • Alfredo Landa as Paco el Bajo
  • Terele Pávez as Régula, his wife
  • Belén Ballesteros as Nieves, their elder daughter
  • Juan Sánchez as Quirce, their son
  • Susana Sánchez as La Niña Chica, their younger handicapped daughter
  • Francisco Rabal as Azarías, Régula's handicapped brother
  • Agustín González as Don Pedro, the estate manager
  • Ágata Lys as Doña Pura, his wife
  • Mary Carrillo as Señora Marquesa, the estate owner
  • Juan Diego as Señorito Iván, her son
  • Maribel Martín as Señorita Miriam, her daughter
  • Manuel Zarzo as Don Manuel, the doctor

Production

The distinctive landscapes are of the region of Extremadura, around the towns of Alburquerque and Zafra. Its distinctive soundtrack is played wholly on a three-stringed rabel, a folk instrument dating back to medieval times.

Release

The film was released theatrically in Spain on 4 April 1984.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Las mujeres de Almodóvar primer puesto de recaudación de la historia" (PDF). Diario ABC (in Spanish). 5 May 1991. p. 102. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  2. ↑ Carrera, Elena (2005). "Los santos inocentes / The Holy Innocents". In Mira, Alberto (ed.). The Cinema of Spain and Portugal. London: Wallflower Press. p. 179. ISBN 1-904764-44-4.
  3. ↑ Carrera 2005, p. 179.
  4. ↑ "Spain's All-Time Top Grossing Pics". Variety. May 7, 1986. p. 379.
  5. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Los santos inocentes". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
  6. ↑ Linde, Rosalía; Nevado, Ignacio (2016). "La evolución del personaje del villano en el cine español (1982 – 2015)". Revista Comunicación y Medios. Ñuñoa: Facultad de Comunicación e Imagen. Universidad de Chile. 25 (33): 59. doi:10.5354/0719-1529.2016.39345.


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