Carlos Saura's exquisite CRIA CUERVOS... heralded a turning point in Spain: shot while General Franco was on his deathbed, the film melds the personal and the political in a portrait of the legacy of fascism and its effects on a middle-class family (the title derives from the Spanish proverb: "Raise ravens and they"ll peck out your eyes"). Ana Torrent (the dark-eyed beauty from The Spirit of the Beehive) portrays the disturbed eight-year-old Ana, living in Madrid with her two sisters and mourning the death of her mother, whom she conjures as a ghost (an ethereal Geraldine Chaplin). Seamlessly shifting between fantasy and reality, the film subtly evokes both the complex feelings of childhood and the struggles of a nation emerging from the shadows.

• 1 hr 51 min
• Directed by

  Carlos Saura
• Written by Carlos Saura

• Starring

  Geraldine Chaplin

  ,

  Monica Randal

  ,

  Florinda Chico

  ,

  Ana Torrent

  ,

  Hector Alterio

  ,

  Mirta Miller