Nine-year-old Ana blames her distant father – an army officer under Franco – for her mother’s death. When he, too, dies suddenly, Ana and her two younger sisters are entrusted to the care of their strict aunt. In the large family home, reality, memory and fantasy become increasingly blurred. Ana talks to her deceased mother and becomes convinced that she herself has power over life and death.

With Cría Cuervos, Carlos Saura created one of the great classics of Spanish cinema, in which a country gently bids farewell to its ghosts. The family home becomes a miniature version of Spain at the end of the Franco dictatorship: a place full of unspoken traumas, authority and memories from which no one can fully escape. At the same time, this is much more than a political allegory. Thanks to Ana Torrent’s unforgettable performance (El espíritu de la colmena), it is a mysterious and moving film about loss, childhood and the strange ways in which memories take root within us.

Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes and inextricably linked to Jeanette’s catchy song ‘Porque te vas’: fifty years on, Cría cuervos remains just as enigmatic, playful and moving.

Ana Torrent in Cría Cuervos: ‘one of screen’s most impressive performances by a child’. The Guardian