Cinema
Poachers
Furtivos
José Luis Borau · 1975
Synopsis
A forest in the area around Segovia. Ángel, a taciturn poacher, lives in an isolated house with his mother Martina, a tyrannical and hard woman. The governor of the province, whose nurse she once was, comes to hunt at their place in season. On one of his rare trips to town, Ángel meets Milagros, a young woman escaped from a reformatory and a friend of a known delinquent; he takes her under his protection and brings her back to the forest, despite his mother's hostility.
Context
The screenplay was written with Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, a former student of the director, and shooting took place in the forests of the province of Segovia; for lack of money, Borau played the governor himself. The censors demanded numerous cuts: he refused almost all of them and accepted only the removal of one shot of a facade, but the film was kept out of Cannes and Berlin. Released two months before Franco's death, it became a political symbol. In the dictionary of the Academy, a furtive is also anyone who acts in secret. In 2025, a restoration revealed an alternative ending never shown in cinemas.
Who it is for
A dry and violent rural drama, carried by Lola Gaos in the role of the mother; the music is by the duo Vainica Doble.
Prizes and reception
Golden Shell at the San Sebastián festival in 1975; a great critical and popular success; Spanish entry for the Oscar for best foreign film.