Vacas
Vacas (English: Cows) is a 1991 Spanish film, written and directed by Julio Médem. The film stars Carmelo Gómez, Emma Suárez, Ana Torrent, and Karra Elejalde. An eerie family saga set in rural Basque Country, the cryptic film follows the intertwined story of three generations of two families from 1875 to 1936. It was Médem's first film and for it he won the 1993 Goya Award as Best New Director.
Plot
Fighting in the trenches of Biscay in 1875 during the Third Carlist War, Carmelo Mendiluze, an army sergeant, learns from a young errand boy named Ilegorri that Manuel Iriguíbel, his neighbor from his native village, has joined their exhausted battalion. Eager for news of his child's birth, Carmelo befriends the inexperienced soldier whose reputation as an expert aizcolari (competition log cutter) cannot conceal his apprehension and fear of armed combat. Panicking under fire, Manuel drops to the ground and smears himself with blood gushing hot from the neck of his mortally wounded neighbor, Mendiluze. When the battle is over, Manuel crawls out from a cartload of the dead, naked bodies as he is transported away from the front lines. Nobody has seen his escape, except a curious, solitary cow.
More details
| author | Julio Médem Michel Gaztanbide |
|---|---|
| director | Julio Médem |
| events | Basque Country Spanish Civil War |
| genre | drama saga |
| keywords | aizcolari army sergeant biscay capture carlist childhood friends childhood sweetheart civil war cut errand boy fight guipúzcoa illegitimate son kill obsess old man paint report spring survive the national third carlist war travel wound |
| musicBy | Alberto Iglesias |
| publisher | Sony Pictures Releasing |
| theme | war |