''Escape from Segovia'' () is a 1981 Spanish prison-break film directed by

Imanol Uribe Imanol Uribe (born 28 February 1950) is a Basque Spanish screenwriter and film director. He won the Goya Award for Best Director and Best Screenplay for the 1994 thriller '' Running Out of Time''. Biography Born in San Salvador on 28 February ...

from a screenplay by Ángel Amigo and Uribe consisting of a dramatized account of the 1976 Segovia prison break. The cast is led by Xabier Elorriaga, Mario Pardo, and Ovidi Montllor.

Plot

The plot explores the jailbreak of about 30 prisoners, the majority of them

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

members, from the

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is located in the Meseta central, Inner Pl ...

prison in April 1976.

Cast

Production

Uribe decided to make the film upon inspiration from the book ''Operación Poncho'' by . Shooting locations included the old school of Los Escolapios in Tolosa, as well as various locations in Orendain,

Urnieta Urnieta is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, northern Spain. It is known for its Sagardotegi, restaurants that specialise in cider and regional food. ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Zumarraga, and Legazpi.

Release

The film premiered at the

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...

in September 1981. It was released theatrically in Spain on 6 November 1981.

Reception

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' considered that the film "unfolds in a careful considered style, avoiding sensationalism and concentrating on the fine points of the prisoners' complicated plan".

References