In 1940, just after Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War, six-year-old Ana lives in a remote village that, while escaping destruction, is not immune to the difficulties of life under the new regime. Ana is entranced by a travelling cinema’s screening of James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931). Her elder sister Isabel (Isabel Tellerí), playing on Ana’s fascination, tells her that that the monster actually lives in a desolate, isolated building on her family’s farm, which shapes the younger girl’s reaction when she discovers a wounded soldier hiding there. Rich in symbolism critical of the Franco regime that, fortunately, escaped the censor of the time, this visually beautiful film is also an evocative depiction of the power and innocence of a child’s imagination, and is a mood piece as painterly and powerful as anything produced by Terrence Malick or their contemporaries.

Notes by Kevin Coyne

Screening as part of the Víctor Erice season – full season details here.