Cria Cuervos

Nine-year-old Ana blames her distant father – an army officer under Franco – for the death of her mother. When he too suddenly dies, Ana and her two younger sisters are entrusted to their strict aunt. In the large family house, reality, memory, and fantasy increasingly blur. Ana talks to her deceased mother and becomes convinced that she herself has the power over life and death. Carlos Saura made one of the great classics of Spanish cinema with Cría Cuervos, in which a country cautiously says goodbye to its ghosts. The family house becomes a miniature version of Spain at the end of the Franco dictatorship: a place full of unspoken traumas, authority, and memories from which no one can completely escape. At the same time, this is much more than a political allegory. Through the unforgettable gaze of Ana Torrent (Spirit of the Beehive), it is a mysterious and touching film about loss, childhood, and the strange ways memories take root inside us. Awarded the Jury Prize in Cannes and inseparably linked to Jeanette’s infectious song Porque te vas: fifty years later, Cría cuervos remains just as enigmatic, playful, and poignant.