My first viewing of this, one of the most famous and ground-breaking documentaries ever made and Bunuel's last released work for virtually 15 years, was via the "Films Sans Frontieres" DVD of LOS OLVIDADOS (1950) - on which it was included as an extra (albeit without the benefit of English subtitles). Eventually, I obtained another copy for which these were available: however, given the broken English utilized throughout, it was still not the most congenial way to watch the film!
Although it might seem downright strange that a director notorious for his anarchic and surrealistic traits would be interested in shooting a sociological documentary, it is no wonder that the power of LAND WITHOUT BREAD lies in its equally extraordinary and shocking visuals depicting the state of extreme poverty in which the people from the mountain regions of Spain lived. They often get sick from drinking contaminated water, while others are afflicted with malaria or get stung by insects and eventually die from maltreated wounds; their overall conditions are so dire, in fact, that they tend to look older than their age. The lack of hygiene and propensity for incestuous relationships has also resulted in an abundance of deformed kids within the population, while the corpses of dead babies are left floating down the riverbanks – 22 years prior to Bunuel's own DEATH AND THE RIVER!
Being an animal lover, then, I was most affected by the scenes depicting a goat falling to its death from a rocky cliff and a donkey attacked, after tripping, by bees which have broken free from the hives the former was carrying; learning after the fact that both incidents were deliberately 'staged' for the (rather than fortuitously caught on) camera does not diminish their effect but actually serves to anticipate Bunuel's consistent blurring of documentary with fiction and reality with dreams in his future films. Interestingly enough, a much-later feature-length documentary about the making of this one – entitled BUNUEL'S PRISONERS (2000) – decried, through the reaction of the villagers themselves, the director's ruthless tactics in striving for 'phoney' realism!
As if this was not irony enough, LAS HURDES (the film's original title, named after the godforsaken area where it was shot over a two-month period) was a French production financed by a friend's money won in a lottery. Besides, it features an epilogue which, if anything, exposes Bunuel's naïve Communist ideals and, almost inevitably, Spain's fascist government enforced a 3-year ban on the film and, possibly, were responsible for its revamped (sporting a more objective narration) release under the new moniker of UNPROMISED LAND! Ultimately, the true legacy of this highly divisive work is less its political commentary or sociological content and more its unique subversion of the then-popular travelogue format which slowly paved the way for the "mockumentaries" prevalent in Cinema's last 30 years.
Although it might seem downright strange that a director notorious for his anarchic and surrealistic traits would be interested in shooting a sociological documentary, it is no wonder that the power of LAND WITHOUT BREAD lies in its equally extraordinary and shocking visuals depicting the state of extreme poverty in which the people from the mountain regions of Spain lived. They often get sick from drinking contaminated water, while others are afflicted with malaria or get stung by insects and eventually die from maltreated wounds; their overall conditions are so dire, in fact, that they tend to look older than their age. The lack of hygiene and propensity for incestuous relationships has also resulted in an abundance of deformed kids within the population, while the corpses of dead babies are left floating down the riverbanks – 22 years prior to Bunuel's own DEATH AND THE RIVER!
Being an animal lover, then, I was most affected by the scenes depicting a goat falling to its death from a rocky cliff and a donkey attacked, after tripping, by bees which have broken free from the hives the former was carrying; learning after the fact that both incidents were deliberately 'staged' for the (rather than fortuitously caught on) camera does not diminish their effect but actually serves to anticipate Bunuel's consistent blurring of documentary with fiction and reality with dreams in his future films. Interestingly enough, a much-later feature-length documentary about the making of this one – entitled BUNUEL'S PRISONERS (2000) – decried, through the reaction of the villagers themselves, the director's ruthless tactics in striving for 'phoney' realism!
As if this was not irony enough, LAS HURDES (the film's original title, named after the godforsaken area where it was shot over a two-month period) was a French production financed by a friend's money won in a lottery. Besides, it features an epilogue which, if anything, exposes Bunuel's naïve Communist ideals and, almost inevitably, Spain's fascist government enforced a 3-year ban on the film and, possibly, were responsible for its revamped (sporting a more objective narration) release under the new moniker of UNPROMISED LAND! Ultimately, the true legacy of this highly divisive work is less its political commentary or sociological content and more its unique subversion of the then-popular travelogue format which slowly paved the way for the "mockumentaries" prevalent in Cinema's last 30 years.