La barraca

Spanish cast, Spanish, setting, Spanish story. I think the film was shot in Mexico but it's barely Mexican outside of that.

But that doesn't make a film bad, surely. I never said it did.

The plot is fairly predictable B-movie type fare - a family moves into a parcel of land hoping to make a living there and the townsfolk bully the family for scant reason throughout the film - some people are just mean I guess!

Usually I would call the townsfolk a cheap melodramatic fully evil antagonist, but there are some brief respites to the hostilities, although they ramp up again in short order. Also the film explains it by hinting at a supernatural miasma of ill-will in the town. Nice try, but I still think the town's attitude, and by extension the plot, is cartoonish since their mercurial dispositions often poorly substantiated or built up.

The acting is good, if characteristic of the stilted performances one would expect from movies before the 1970s. The cinematography is relentlessly somber so that the film looks like it takes place in a foggy bog, but it matches the plot, so it's a plus.

Not an unpleasant watch, but it's not really captivating or impressive, either. I would call this a weak start to Mexico's Ariel Award for Best Picture.