Buñuel in the laberinth of the turtles

Based on a graphic novel by Fermin Solis, this unique animated feature focuses on a turning point in the career of the great Spanish-born director Luis Buñuel. With his career at a standstill due to the notoriety of his early surrealist classics, Buñuel sets out in 1932 with three of his leftist/anarchist friends to make LAS HURDES, a bracingly confrontational documentary set in an extremely backward and impoverished region of Spain. Using a style of 2-D animation that emphasizes facial expression over fluidity of movement, director Simó draws a complex portrait of Buñuel--haunted by nightmares and childhood memories of his disapproving father, capable of bizarre and callous behavior, but also finding the compassion and humanity that will fuel his growth as an artist. Note: Contains depictions of cruelty to animals.