Spanish Cinema Day 2023: Embrujo (online)

On October 6th we celebrate the third edition of the Spanish Film Day, which pays homage and remembers the Spanish cinematographic heritage through the recovery of especially important works due to their connection with the different audiences of each moment, but also for presenting films whose uniqueness gives them a place of honor within our cinema.

This year the film Embrujo is being presented, directed by Carlos Serrano de Osma and starring Lola Flores and Manolo Caracol, two undeniable stars of flamenco music and dance.

Far from being in front of a film associated with the Spanish films of the moment, the team behind the production company Boga opted for a production and an aesthetic proposal that dialogued with the visuality of cinematographic expressionism through a staging on stage and a montage stranded in the best European avant-garde cinema of the beginning of the century.

This title from 1947 is, therefore, a rarity in which the most revolutionary expression of scenic flamenco is crossed with a cinema that claims to be disruptive and groundbreaking, which, as was to be expected, had a bittersweet reception among the public at the time. , whose expectations were directed towards a more conventional cinema.

Seen from the current point of view, Embrujo is a cinephile jewel and a pulse to a moment in which one of the hottest folkloric roots of the 20th century —flamenco— expressed itself through the hegemonic medium from that time —the cinema.

Embrujo also serves to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the great Lola Flores, who after this film had a hectic career in popular Spanish cinema and in different stage shows and, later, on television until it became a true myth of Spanish culture.