Cria Cuervos (Raise ravens)

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 (played by 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. Dir: Carlos Saura Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Mónica Randall, Héctor Alterio, Ana Torrent