Pa negre

Villaronga’s latest is an adaptation of the eponymous 2003 novel by Emili Teixidor, discretely augmented by elements from two 1979 works, Retrat d’un assassí d’ocells and Sic transit Gloria Swanson. It marks a return to the psycho-geography of El mar – again, it takes place in a Spain marked by the barely closed wounds of the Civil War; again, it’s set in a rural, almost pastoral, universe; again, skulls are smashed; again, it tells of the loss of innocence. Only this time around it’s but one boy, force-fed a wisdom he never asked for. Andreu (he even has the same name as El mar‘s main character) finds two bodies in a forest: a man and his son. ‘As you sow so you shall reap’, an elderly man mumbles upon hearing the news. The Guardia Civil soon arrests Andreu’s father. In the end, Pa negre turns out to be a story not only about family, but also class relations. A mature masterpiece.