In 47 years, no film has shown childhood with such emotion. It’s coming to the movies!

What is it about?

9-year-old Ana no longer sleeps at night in the big family house in Madrid. His parents died recently. Mother died of grief and love hatred, father succumbed to a vengeful mistress.

Witnessing these two deaths, Anna, in spite of herself, rejects the world of adults and invents her own world. He clings to his dreams and memories to bring his mother back to life and find her love. She fills her daily life with games that she shares with her sisters.

The music that accompanies this film is the famous tune: Porque Te Vas, sung by Janet. A song that has remained associated with this film ever since and one that lingers in the mind long after hearing it. This movie, if you haven’t seen it before, may have the same effect on you. Cria Cuervos is a rare film that is often called a masterpiece and one of the most important works of Spanish cinema.

Released 47 years ago, this film, directed by the late Carlos Saura, marked the history of cinema with an unparalleled tone and accuracy in depicting childhood. In Cria Cuervos there are these mixed feelings that belong to this period of life and which are difficult to describe in words. Cria Cuervos is a realistic and poetic film about grace, with the talent of its performers and beautiful staging ideas.

To shed some light on this film, its writer and director had this to say:I never believed in the so-called childhood. On the contrary, I believe that childhood represents a stage in which the fear of the night, the fear of the unknown, the sense of impossibility, loneliness are as much as this joy of life and this curiosity that many people talk about. teachers.”

I never believed in the so-called paradise of childhood

and add:Anna, the heroine of my film, is clearly sensitive and especially sensitive; Faced with the aggression of the adult world, he has created a private world where only those people who fit what he expects of them can find a place. In this world, reality includes memories that have relevance, desires, and hallucinations that blend into everyday life…“

Cria Cuervos is a fascinating film in its complexity: there’s this mixture of tones, between childhood games and the omnipotence of death, a place haunted by ghosts… There’s also this work on the temporal, with Geraldine Chaplin playing the dual role of a lost mother and an adult Anna. Finally, Cria Cuervos conceals another level of reading rooted in the era in which it was created, namely Francoism. Carlos Saura’s film offers a sharp reflection and critique that is a metaphor for this period of Spanish history.

Finally, note that the film’s title comes from a Spanish proverb.Cria cuervos que te sacaran los ojos“. It means “feed the crows, they will poke your eyes out”.

Find all the movie releases of the week

Cria Cuervos hits theaters this Wednesday and will follow A larger retrospective dedicated to its director, Carlos Saura. In total, 11 feature films of the director who died on February 10 will be shown in cinemas.