Girasoles ciegos, Los (2008)

Director:

José Luis Cuerda

Writers:

Rafael Azcona (adaptation)
José Luis Cuerda (adaptation)

Release Date:

29 August 2008 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Maribel Verdú	...	Elena
Javier Cámara	...	Ricardo
Raúl Arévalo	...	Salvador
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fany de Castro
José Ángel Egido	...	Rector
Irene Escolar	...	Elenita
David Janer	...	Falangista
Carmen Losa
Xosé Manuel Olveira 'Pico'
Roger Príncep	...	Lorenzo
Fernando Ransanz
Martín Rivas	...	Lalo

Also Known As:

The Blind Sunflowers (International: English title)

Runtime:

Canada:98 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Arahuetes, Segovia, Castilla y León, Spain

Company:

Estudios Organizativos y Proyectos Cinematográficos S.L.

Great performance erases script gaps

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Once again, the postwar period is used as stage for a good movie with magnificent actors who turn it into a big one, giving life to prominent figures who fight to survive, trying to give sense to their acts, no matter what. It is true that Javier Cámara's jump turns out to be artificial, maybe because he does not spread himself in dramatic quality and goes to the practical thing, but Maribel Verdú, in her better moment of the movie, reduces the fault completely. We have an adaptation that focuses on the conflict of one of the main characters of the original tale. The totally corrupted by the war morality of the religious man (something that reminds me to the soldier men of In Elah's Valley) If they had focused, for example, on the confinement of the husband, we would have another thing, better or worse, we do not know it, but it would be already another story. By the way, the child asks this question because he does not see the suicide. Is just the woman who runs towards the room when the husband says goodbye.