This is a 1933 black-and-white documentary by Luis Buñuel (one of his first works, he was in his early 30s here) and to put it into perspective this was made shortly before the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. It is based on a book by Maurice Legendre and runs for under 30 minutes and depicts the life of a family in rural Spain with occasionally including nature documentary references. However, nothing is what it seems. With this movie here, you can never be sure how much of the narration is real. Only the depicted events are. I have severe doubts if that girl on the street really died or if these mules did or the whole snake thingey in the second half seemed complete nonsense to me. Or when he randomly starts insulting the citizens as idiots, degenerates and incest people... (even if the latter may be true) This is just angry rambling and no great movie-making. If the narrator constantly telling lies is what surrealism means, then I guess this genre is not for me. Not recommended.
Review of Las Hurdes
