Black Bread

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The Spanish selection for the 89th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, Black Bread is set in the war-ravaged Catalan countryside of the early 1940s where a local man is accused of murder and his son sets out to find the truth. Eleven-year-old Andreu stumbles upon a crushed wagon in the underbrush at the foot of a high cliff and witnesses the dying moments of the man and boy inside. When police suspect Andreu’s father of foul play, he goes into hiding and Andreu is sent to live with relatives. There, the frightened boy creates a fantasy life, but is forced to confront a world of adult deception, festering hatreds and the war’s monstrous consequences.

Adored by audience and critics alike, Black Bread won an unprecedented number of prizes, including 9 Goya Awards and 13 Gaudí Awards highlighting not only the quality of the film, but also the mastery of its director, the poignancy of its script, and power of its performances.

"Augusti Villaronga's moody and atmospheric tale of dark goings on amongst peasants and village officials in post-Civil War Catalonia is an impressive piece of storytelling as it blends a child's tough coming-of-age with murderous secrets amongst the grim adults." — Mark Adams, Screen Daily

"...there is something interesting about every character's moral ambiguity. Much like the real world, nobody is completely good or bad, and the filmmaker does a great job in portraying their contradictory and complex nature in a non-judgmental way." — Christopher Bell, IndieWire

"As a depiction of rural poverty, pic is impressive: The darkly lit, richly textured interiors seem to be an extension of the beautifully lensed natural landscape, with a palette that switches from natural brown tones during the day to harsh blue hues at night. But the surrounding forests also conjure a more magical darkness that, as with Labyrinth, evokes the world of myth." — Jonathan Holland, Variety

"Villaronga's visual power and expressiveness make this brutal environment, the mysteries of the forest, the rough eroticism, the humiliation and the cruelty toward the weak and different...the corruption of innocence, the progressively turbid view of childhood toward ideals, both credible and lyric." — Carlos Boyero, El País

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Main credits

Villaronga, Agustí (film director)
Passola, Isona (film producer)
Colomer, Francesc (actor)
Navas, Nora (actor)
Casamajor, Roger (actor)
Comas, Marina (actor)

Other credits

Cinematography, Antonio Riestra; editor, Raúl Román; music, Jose Manuel Pagán.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

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