SAURA AND A DARK SPAIN : "CRIA CUERVOS"

Although he is a director of world-renown, I know very little indeed about the works of Carlos Saura before I watched Cria Cuervos. I knew he had done a lot of work about dancing, films about dancing and films with a lot of dancing in it but that was about it. So when I read the topic of Cria Cuervos on the internet I didn’t know what to expect – except that it probably wouldn’t contain much dancing that is). I can safely say that whatever else it does the film takes one by surprise. It also comes with a bit of a caution; it is not an “average” film, it leaves a lot of running to the spectator. But I found it worth it in the end. In the end is very much the key-word here, but let me get to the plot without digressing much further…
As for the plot, I don’t know how much to tell you or how to begin… After the death of their father, their only guardian their mother being dead, three sisters; Irene, Ana and Maite enter the custody of their aunt. Their aunt and their old grandmother come to live with them in their old house and a new period in their lives begin. Maite and Irene, the youngest and oldest respectively, get on with the business of living. Ana the middle child however, has a tougher time adapting. She lives literally surrounded by memories of the past and her childhood, the death of her father brining back memories of the death of their mother and of other times when she was alive, not such happy times either…
Ok, so as far as setting the mood is concerned the film goes straight to the top of the class. The film’s entire atmosphere is of one of those long, austere afternoons we all remember from our childhoods. Usually we are visiting somewhere, we don’t have much to do, and we want to go home. The afternoon stretches ahead of us, dark and unpromising… That’s what this film feels like. This is not a criticism in any way because this is exactly what the film is meant to feel like. Ana is not happy. She wants to go back “home” but home here is not a physical place; especially since technically she hasn’t left the house she grew up in. Home for Ana is a place where her mother is still alive. And her mother, played by a hauntingly beautiful Geraldine Chaplin, is present in her day to day life almost as if she were still alive. Be it flashbacks (that, by the way, are constructed in such a way that at the beginning one is often not sure whether what we are watching is “actually happening” or not) or her imagination her mother is always there. Her father, Ana is obviously less pleased with. But he “has his place” at home too. What Ana doesn’t want is to live with her rather overly austere aunt. And it is only when she actually takes action to do something about this state of affairs that we actually understand what the film has been about from the start… Now, is leaving the “surprise” so obscure right until the end a good thing or a bad thing? I couldn’t rightly say. All I can say is that I only watched until the end out of a sense of duty and then, only after I had the afore-mentioned “a-ha” moment did I appreciate the beauty of the film. So, if you want to watch something original, go for it. Be patient though. Saura doesn’t give a way an inch more than what is necessary; you will have to put two and two together for yourselves…