Jump into Spanish Culture: Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi

Spanish Movies

Last night we decided to go to the movies. The way the economy is going in Spain now and with the rise in taxes on this type of entertainment (theatre, opera, ballet, etc.), going to the movies has turned into an economic investment that must be taken seriously. The family debated on the matter and it was decided that we should go ahead and take the risk. There aren’t any movie theaters close to where we live either, we have to drive all the way to La Orotava, where they have one of those enormous 12 screen theaters with a medieval name that only shows Hollywood’s latest big budget offerings.

This week however, it turned out that the latest film by the iconoclastic Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia was premiering, the director who’s known for slipping from one genre to another in the same movie, naturally jumping from comedy to science fiction. It’s not easy to classify Alex’s films, something that often occurs with the work of those that use iconoclasm as a travel manual. What really helped convince me to make the decision to go see this film was seeing that it was written by Jorge Gerricaechevarría (a serious guy, with an unpronounceable last name, who is in my opinion one of today’s greatest cinematic geniuses, and who won a Goya award for the amazing Celda 211).

When I think about my students, who are all so curious and anxious to learn about Spanish culture, I can come up with plenty of ways to give them small doses of the stuff, always in a controlled manner, so they don’t get culturally overloaded and ended up bored and burned out on it.

But I am planning on recommending that they watch this movie.

Spanish Inquisition

The story goes that in 1610, the inquisition carried out an auto de fe in the city of Logroño against 40 women from the Navarro town of Zugarramurdi. Twelve of the women were later burned to death.

That’s the premise of the story, over which de la Iglesia and Jorge (I’ll refer to him by his first name for the sake of convenience) create a curious cross between a road movie and a feminist version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. During the film, we meet a trio of losers, some brighter than others and all filled with a misogynist attitude picked up through life experiences, who are passing through town as they escape to France after a robbing a gold buyers establishment in Madrid.

The women –witches- who receive them are feminists whose ideas border on the absurd and who produce situations that feature classic gore scenes together with hilarious gags. The viewing experience involves much less fear or repulsion as it does genuine curiosity over just what surprising madness this pair of unorthodox movie makers has prepared for us next. Their use of surprise is effective, and coming to expect the unexpected makes the movie work, as does the dialogue, which is brilliant. Fast-paced exchanges loaded with sharp irony never fall into vulgarity or predictability.       

Learning Spanish

I can picture my students who have a B2 level or higher seeing this movie and discovering how surprising and entertaining Spanish can be while they have fun guessing or jotting down a mental note of the parts of the dialogue they might not get, so they can ask about them in class.