El Sur (film)
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''El Sur'' (''The South'') is a 1983
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by Spanish filmmaker
Victor Erice The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
, who also wrote the screenplay. The film was produced by Elias Querejeta, and starred
Icíar Bollaín Icíar Bollaín Pérez-Mínguez (born 12 June 1967) is a Spanish filmmaker and actress. She is best known for directing '' Te Doy Mis Ojos'' (''Take My Eyes''), which won 7 Goya Awards. Bollaín has won other awards for acting and script-writing ...
as the adult main character. It is based on
Adelaida García Morales Adelaida García Morales (1945, in Badajoz, Spain – 22 September 2014, in Dos Hermanas, Spain) was a Spanish writer. Life and work Born in Badajoz, García Morales moved at the age of 13 to Seville, her parents' home town. She lived there for m ...
' short novel of the same name. As in the novella, the film takes place solely in the north of Spain. However, the novella picks up where the screenplay leaves off, taking Estrella on a journey to the south of Spain.
Elías Querejeta Elías Querejeta Gárate (27 October 1934 – 9 June 2013), also known as Elías Querejeta () and known in the Spanish film industry as "The Producer", was a Spanish screenwriter and film producer. He is the father of Gracia Querejeta. Biograp ...
, the film's producer, decided not to allow the filming of the latter 90 minutes, which would have been filmed in the south. Querejeta attributed this to a lack of financing, although neither Erice nor the film's cinematographer, José Luis Alcaine, believed that was the reason. Erice felt the film was incomplete and described it as an "unfinished drama" even though it was well received by critics.


Plot

In 1957, Estrella, a young girl living in northern Spain, awakens to learn her father Agustín has died. Seven years prior, he had worked as a physician and a
dowser Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations ( radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers i ...
who divinely locates underground water using a pendulum. One night, after he returns home, Estrella tries to enter her father's attic but is prevented by her mother Julia. Meanwhile, Estrella is educated by her mother in calligraphy and literature. She learns from Julia that her father had lived in southern Spain—"El Sur"—during his childhood, but left after a dispute with Estrella's grandfather. Months pass, and Estrella's grandmother Rosario and her friend Milagros arrive to attend Estrella's
First Communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communion (ot ...
. One night before bedtime, Milagros explains that during the Spanish Civil War, her grandfather supported
Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...
while Agustín was a Republican. When the Civil War ended, and Franco had assumed power, Agustín vowed to never return to the south again. Estrella proceeds with her communion ceremony and dances with her father afterwards. Shortly after, she enters her father's study and finds drawings he had made of his former lover named Irene Ríos. Later, Estrella arrives at a movie theater, and discovers Irene Ríos is an actress whose name is featured on a film poster. She asks a box office clerk for a program, and watches her father walking into the theater to view her film. He leaves early and arrives at a café where he writes a letter to Irene, whose real name is Laura, asking for her whereabouts. Days later, Irene replies curious why he is contacting her after several years. She also details her career struggles and life experiences as an older woman since they stopped dating. Depressed, Agustín leaves but returns home the next morning with no one noticing and stops using his pendulum. In frustration, Estrella hides underneath her bed for several hours, which causes her mother and their maid Casilda to look for her. Julia eventually finds her while Agustín remains isolated. In 1957, Estrella matures into a young teenager. At home, she is being romantically pursued by a young man, nicknamed "El Carioco." She traverses the theater looking for film posters with Irene's name featured, but finds none. Her father invites her to the Grand Hotel where Estrella converses with her father about the night she followed him to the theater and café. She leaves, and sometime later, Agustín dies by suicide near a lakeshore. Estrella finds a receipt of a long-distance telephone call among her father's belongings, but decides to tell no one. She becomes ill, and her mother allows her to stay with her grandmother in southern Spain to recuperate.


Cast

*
Omero Antonutti Omero Antonutti (3 August 1935 – 5 November 2019) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Born in Basiliano, in the province of Udine (in the Northeastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia), after having worked in shipyards, ...
- Agustín Arenas * Sonsoles Aranguren - Estrella, 8 years *
Icíar Bollaín Icíar Bollaín Pérez-Mínguez (born 12 June 1967) is a Spanish filmmaker and actress. She is best known for directing '' Te Doy Mis Ojos'' (''Take My Eyes''), which won 7 Goya Awards. Bollaín has won other awards for acting and script-writing ...
- Estrella, 15 years *
Aurore Clément Aurore Clément (; born 12 October 1945) is a French actress who has appeared in French and English language movies and television productions. Early life She was born Marie-Thérèse Aurore Louise Clément in Soissons. Following the death of h ...
- Irene Ríos / Laura * Lola Cardona - Julia, Agustín's wife *
Rafaela Aparicio Rafaela Díaz Valiente MML (9 April 1906 – 9 June 1996) better known as Rafaela Aparicio was a famous Spanish film and theatre actress. She made more than 100 films. The most remembered are Carlos Saura Carlos Saura Atarés (4 January ...
- Milagros * Francisco Merino - Irene Ríos's Co-Star * María Caro - Casilda *
José Vivó José Vivó (19 May 1917 – 26 July 1989) was a Spanish television, theater and film actor. Life He studied engineering, but the Spanish Civil War forced him to leave his studies unfinished. He fought on the side of the Second Spanish Repub ...
- Grand Hotel barman *
Germaine Montero Germaine Montero (1909–2000) was a French singer and a stage, television and film actress.Conway p.87 Partial filmography * '' Sapho'' (1934) - Madame Sombreuse * '' The Sin of Rogelia Sanchez'' (1940) - Rogelia Sanchez * '' Saint Rogelia'' ( ...
- Doña Rosario * José Luis Fernández, El Pirri - El Carioco


Reception

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...
of ''The New York Times'' highlighted the performances by Omero Antonutti and Icíar Bollaín, but felt the film lacked "a dominating performance like that of
Ana Torrent Ana Torrent Bertrán de Lis (born 12 July 1966) is a Spanish film actress. She featured as a child actress in pictures such as ''The Spirit of the Beehive'' (1973), and ''Cría cuervos'' (1976), ''Elisa, vida mía'' (1977) and '' The Nest'' (19 ...
in 'The Spirit of the Beehive'' Everything about ''El Sur,'' including the highly theatrical lighting, is so artfully composed that it seems to be more about film making than characters or ideas." The film was entered into the
1983 Cannes Film Festival The 36th Cannes Film Festival took place from 7 to 19 May 1983. American author William Styron served as jury president for the main competition. Japanese filmmaker Shōhei Imamura won the ''Palme d'Or'', the festival's top prize, for the dra ...
. It won the Gold Hugo at the 1983
Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
. ''El Sur'' was voted the eighth-best Spanish film by professionals and critics in a 1996 Spanish cinema centenary. John Patterson, of the ''The Guardian'' said "This is a simple and moving cinema language, whose serenity belies the rich complexity of its visual construction and its mastery of the themes of childhood, memory and loss. A masterpiece, haunted by itself." and gave the film a 4/5 stars.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sur, El 1983 films 1983 drama films 1980s Spanish films 1980s Spanish-language films Films set in Spain Films based on Spanish novels Films directed by Víctor Erice Spanish drama films Spanish-language drama films