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The Prisoners of Buñuel
(De gevangenen van Buñuel)

Screening on Film
Directed by Ramón Gieling.
With Gieling.
The Netherlands, 2000, 35mm, color, 73 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.

Sixty-seven years after Buñuel created a vision of hell on earth in his documentary Las Hurdes (Land without Bread), Dutch filmmaker Ramón Gieling and his crew return to the same remote region of Spain to document it anew—this time, to see if a more objective view might be possible. (Buñuel’s film, despite its ostensibly straightforward portrayal, ended up incurring the wrath of both Church and state for its brutal presentation of the starvation, disease, and madness there.) Gieling’s crew sets up a projector in a local square and screens Buñuel’s film for the villagers. The marvelous remembrances and sometimes fierce reaction that ensue form the basis for this fascinating sequel to a classic documentary film.

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