Los santos inocentes (1984)

Director:

Mario Camus

Writers:

Mario Camus (writer)
Miguel Delibes (novel)

Release Date:

4 April 1984 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Spain, 1960's. People from a very poor family work in the country, at the service of a rich family of landowners...

Plot Keywords:

Actual Animal Killed | Beautiful Woman | Social | Based On Novel

Awards:

6 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Alfredo Landa	...	Paco, El Bajo
Terele Pávez	...	Régula
Belén Ballesteros	...	Nieves
Juan Sachez	...	Quirce
Susana Sánchez	...	La Niña Chica
Francisco Rabal	...	Azarías
Ágata Lys	...	Doña Pura
Agustín González	...	Don Pedro
Juan Diego	...	Señorito Iván
Mary Carrillo	...	Señora Marquesa
José Guardiola	...	Señorito de la Jara
Manuel Zarzo	...	Don Manuel, el doctor
Francisco Torres
José Salvador
José Manuel Sito

Also Known As:

The Holy Innocents

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Alburquerque, Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain

Company:

Ganesh Producciones Cinematográficas

Trivia:

Voted eighth best Spanish film by professionals and critics in 1996 Spanish cinema centenary.

A timeless look at a thankfully bygone period

In the opening scenes of this movie, I couldn't tell what century it was. The peasant family living in their hovel with no electricity or running water and their subservient attitude toward the master made me wonder if this movie was taking place in the 19th century. But no, a car appeared, a model from the 1960s, so I knew that it took place in relatively recent times.

Filmed in muted, grayish tones reminiscent of a Goya painting, this film gives one an idea of what life must have been like, not only for Spanish peasants in the Franco era but also for medieval serfs and slaves in the pre-Civil War South. The master and mistress treat their own whims as more important than the peasants' needs, require them to act and speak in a subservient manner, act as if small favors are huge concessions (The family gets to move into a house with electricity!), and literally treat the men of the family as if they were hunting dogs, forcing them to fetch the game that the master spends an inordinate amount of time shooting. In one case, a man is forced to fetch while trying to recover from a broken leg. When foreign visitors criticize the master and mistress for their treatment of the peasants, they make a big show of demonstrating that the peasants are happy and can write their own names (but only because they have just been taught).

But the world is changing, and even the meekest peasant may reach his limit...

Unfortunately, this film has never been released on DVD for Region 1, and the Region 2 version is out of print, so few people will be able to see this brutal but fascinating glimpse of the twilight of an era when Spanish society was composed of countless little dictatorships.