Introduced by Dr Deborah Madden, University of Manchester, on Tue 10 Mar.
Film details
Shot in the Altiplano de Granada, a vast plateau famous for its cave dwellings, the action takes place in 1946, in a dictatorship-era, post-war Spain where the indentured rural poor are used and abused by the landowners, and the model of oppression comes all the way from the top. Packed with classic Western tropes, life is cheap and violence is a constant threat; but there is one man obeying a moral code: loner and shepherd, El Moro. A cruel farm foreman has groomed a boy from an impoverished family, but to his fury the boy has dared to escape. On the run, hotly pursued across the arid plains, the boy has the good fortune to encounter El Moro, who might just be the hero he needs.
Nominated for five Goya Awards in 2020, including Best Film. From the director of previous ¡Viva! hits Solas, Habana Blues and La Voz dormida, and based on the award-winning novel Out in the Open by Jesús Carrasco.
