OUT OF COMPETITION

Vertiges

¿Quién puede matar a un niño?

Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
1976 - Spain - 1h52

Screenings : wednesday 25 - 10:00 pm - 400 Coups - 5 - presented by Rodrigo Sorogoyen

English couple Tom and Evelyn arrive in the seaside resort of Benavis during the summer season. They want to avoid the crowds and decide to go to the small island of Almanzora. It is very much off the beaten track for tourists and the couple will find what they need for a restful fortnight's holiday, in particular Evelyn, who is pregnant. But when they arrive, they find that the inhabitants have abandoned the village. The some children appear, behaving very strangely. What if they had something to do with the disappearance of the adult population?

In The Birds (1963), Alfred Hitchcock showed nature rebelling against mankind. In ¿Quién puede matar a un niño? (Death is Child's Play) (1976), it is children who turn violence against abusive adults. The horror comes from the realistic setting, a picturesque village in the blazing heat of the sun, far from the usual clichés of the genre. In this familiar, yet nightmarish setting, director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador cleverly distils the tension right up to the film's final climax, with a transgression rarely seen on screen. Echoing Peter Brook's masterly 1963 film Lord of the Flies, ¿Quién puede matar a un niño?shows a civilisation which has lost its bearings and where the main victims are the children. With its subversion, its violence, and also its visual beauty, this work has left a permanent mark on Spanish cinema and has influenced directors around the world, from Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza ([•REC]) to Gaspar Noé (Seul contre tous (I Stand Alone)) through Juan Antonio Bayona (El orfanato (The Orphanage)).

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome
Screenplay : Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Cinematography : José Luis Alcaine
Editing : Antonio Ramírez de Loaysa, Juan Serra
Music : Waldo de los Ríos

Production : Penta Films

French distributor : Carlotta