.Spanish Subject Guide: Spanish Films

The feature film version of the story of thirteen young women who were sent to the firing squad early in the Franco regime, in retaliation for a political crime they were not involved in. See also Que mi nombre no se borre de la historia, a documentary on the event.

Marcela, a young immigrant with financial troubles, finds a summer job looking after Amador, a bed-ridden elderly man whose family is away. She thinks her problems are solved, but Amador dies shortly thereafter, putting Marcela in a predicament. His death leaves her jobless, something she can't afford to let happen. Faced with a difficult moral dilemma, Marcela will prove that death can't always stop life.

Set in Spain, a sizzling tale of young lovers separated by fate, but whose hearts still burn with a passion only for each other.

Aragón, Spain, 1938. Carmela and her two companions quit their posts as entertainers for the Republican troops in search for a better fortune. By mistake, they cross over to the Nationalist zone, get arrested and are given the chance to perform for their freedom.

Uxbal is a man on the wrong side of the law who struggles to provide for his children on the dangerous streets of Barcelona. As fate encircles him, Uxbal learns to accept the realities of life, whether bright, bad, or biutiful.

A filmed flamenco-ballet dance rehearsal which tells, in dance, the story of a young bride who deserts her husband-to-be and who leaves their wedding with her married lover.

The legend of Don Juan who at the height of his licentious career, seduces a girl of noble family and kills her father. Later, seeing a statue on the father's tomb, he flippantly invites it to dine with him. He is dragged down to hell, refuses to repent, and falls to eternal damnation.

Tells the story of General Franco's revolt and the ensuing Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 from both the Republican and Falangist points of view. Includes documentary film footage, narrative excerpts from various well-known writers who reported on the war at first hand, and contemporary visits with surviving participants. In the interest of clarity, the Republican footage is tinted red and the Falangist footage is tinted blue.

A documentary on the lives of women who participated in the anarchist movement during the Spanish Civil War. Through interviews, archival footage and still photographs, the program portrays a dynamic group of women, now in their eighties, who put the anarchist ideals of equality and self-management to work in their own lives.

Presents firsthand accounts of the Spanish Civil War from Spaniards who went into exile as a result of it. Newsreel footage accompanies their stories of destruction and escape: tales of separation, imprisonment, forced labor, and frontline action at the start of World War II, as well as, for some ---testimonials to the kindness of strangers

Thanks to the Civil War, Carlos has arrived at the desolate Santa Lucia School, now a makeshift shelter for war orphans, where an unexploded bomb rests in the courtyard. More frightening are the odd things keep happening to Carlos - he sees strange shadows, hears voices, and at night he is being visited by the "One Who Sighs."

Screen adaptation of the 16th century Spanish play "La Celestina". Includes critical comments.

This film version of the historical drama by Lope de Vega is co-produced by RTVE, RAI and Films for the Humanities and Sciences; considered one of the masterpieces of Siglo de oro literature, the play concerns the assassination of Commander Calatrava Fern`n Gomz de Guzm`n by the townspeople of Fuenteovejuna and the subsequent investigation surrounding the Commander's murder.

A passionate dissatisfaction with Spain's immediate past and a keen awareness of the need for a rebirth of spirit and letters were the major points of unity among the disparate group of writers who would later become known as the Generation of '98. In this program, leading scholars seek to understand the writings of Miguel de Unamuno, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Antonio Machado, and other icons of the era within the context of their lives. Dramatic readings from a number of the period's most significant works are included.

Spain, 1944. Officially, the Civil War has been over for five years, but a small group of rebels fights on in the northern mountains of Navarra. Dreamy 10-year-old Ofelia and her pregnant mother Carmen move to Navarra, joining her new stepfather, Captain Vidal. A Fascist officer, he is under orders to destroy the rebels. Ofelia discovers an overgrown, tumbledown labyrinth and meets an ancient faun who claims to know her true identity and secret destiny. She can learn them if she completes three tasks before the full moon. But no one must know: not her ailing mother or her new friend Mercedes. Time is running out, and both Ofelia and the rebels will have to battle hardship and cruelty in order to gain their freedom. Who can be trusted in a time of lies and danger? Is the faun telling the truth ...? If not, who is?

This classic, award-winning adaptation of the anonymous masterpiece tells the story of the young and constantly hungry protagonist, Lazaro, whose worldly education on the road through a series of masters presents a sly, often comical critique of 16th-century Spain.

Filmmaker Enrique gets a visit from an aspiring actor claiming to be his old school friend Igancio, who has written a story about their traumatic childhood spent at Catholic school. In the story, a drag performer attempts to blackmail a predatory priest by exposing their scandalous past. When Enrique produces a film based on the story, the villainous priest from their school days arrives to tell his own version of the events.

Biography of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his life.

Since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has wanted to create a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he cultivates a skin that is a real shield against every assault. Now, besides the years of study and experimentation, the unscrupulous doctor needs to find an accomplice, and a human guinea pig. Marrilia, the woman who looked after him from birth, is his most faithful accomplice. But where will they find the human pig?

Dramatization of the epic of El Cid, along with literary discussion and historical notes on the time of Alfonso VI.

Documentary about 13 young women who were sent to the firing squad during the early years of the Franco regime, as punishment for a political crime they were not involved in. See also the feature film depicting the event, Las 13 Rosas

A woman must come to terms with the death of her 17-year-old son and her past when she seeks out her son's father.

The central focus in Volver is a family of women: mother and grandmother Irene, her daughters Raimunda and Sole, and Raimunda's 14-year-old daughter Paula. Irene is dead: She died with the girls' father in a fire many years ago in their birth village in La Mancha. Raimunda lives in Madrid with Paula and her shiftless husband, who is malevolent, irrelevant, or absent. Separated Sole runs an unlicensed beauty parlor in her apartment. Their old aunt, Paula, still lives in the village and speaks about her sister Irene as if she were still alive. When the aunt dies, some things change, many things return, and Raimunda's troubles become extremely complicated. She bustles through them with passionate determination, a hard-working woman pulled in fifty directions, making a life for her family, reveling in every emotion but self-pity.

This historical drama tells the story of Juana Inés de la Cruz, one of the greatest poets of the Spanish Siglo de Oro. In order to pursue her passion for writing, Juana enters the convent. There, she develops an intimate relationship with the vicereine, who inspires her poetry. But when the forces of the Inquisition invade the convent, the women have only each other to turn to.

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend's criminal activities. They talk to a female lawyer, who turns out to be the lover's new lover, and everyone's path keeps crossing each other's in a very complicated and confusing manner.

El Bola, a 12 year old boy a.k.a. "Pellet" is a 12 year old boy raised in a violent and sordid environment. Embarrassed by his family life, he avoids becoming close to classmates. The arrival of a new boy at school changes his attitude towards his classmates, and friendship. The heart of the story is the change in El Bola's life, at almost all levels, after befriending this new classmate.

Patricia, a woman from Dominican Republic, needs a home and an economic security that her illegal status in Madrid does not provide her. Milady, twenty, born in Havana and dying to travel the world. Marirosi has a job, a home, and the most complete solitude... just like Alfonso, Damián and Carmelo, men from the St. Eulalia, a village lacking both marrying women and future. A bachelors' party forces the encounter between them and the beginning of this bittersweet story of sharing a living.

For Moncho, it's an idyllic year: he starts school, he has a wonderful teacher, he makes a friend in Roque, he begins to figure out some of the mysteries of Eros, and, with his older brother, a budding saxophone player, he makes a trip with the band from their town in Galicia. But it's also the year that the Spanish Republic comes under fire from Fascist rebels. Moncho's father is a Republican as is the aging teacher, Don Gregorio. As sides are drawn and power falls clearly to one side, the forces of fear, violence, and betrayal alter profoundly what should be the pleasure of coming of age.

While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student in her faculty...

A sensitive seven-year-old girl living a small village in 1940 rural Spain is traumatized after viewing James Whale's "Frankenstein" and drifts into her own fantasy world.