Out in the Open (Intemperie) - London Spanish Film Festival

Whether it’s the real-life controversies over Franco’s remains and his properties or its influence on the arts, the Spanish Civil War is still a major part of Spanish life. There are two films in this year’s London Spanish Film Festival While at War and the opening film Out in the Open (Intemperie) that have the war as a feature, though they are quite different.

Out in the Wild is set seven years after the end of the war, in Andalucía. The opening beautiful vistas of a dry parched land then focus down on the workers in the fields. Its back breaking work that stops as the starved workers discover a hare that is chased only for it to be shot the foreman (Luis Callejo) who keeps it for himself.

This bleak opening sets the master and servant relationship with the workers living in abject poverty in caves. The foreman on his horse perversely imperious surrounded by his lackeys. News comes that a boy has escaped (played by Jaime López whom we see in the opening shots on the run) and he immediately dispatches his men to find him. That fails and Initially tight lipped after a vicious threat she tells the foreman of her brother’s plan and the chase is on.

Knowing he is being chased and losing what little water had and a compass, the boy is forced to thieve. His initial attempt to rob a shepherd (known as the moor) (Louis Tosar) fails but he is later picked up by the shepherd after he collapses due to heat and exhaustion. From here the film develops the relationship between the boy and the shepherd one world weary resigned existence, the other combative though frightened. Meanwhile the pursuit continues with the foreman growing frustrated and his penchant for violence with it.

One slight flaw is that it doesn’t take too long to work out why the boy is running but when it is fully realised with very few words it is no less powerful or moving. The interaction between the boy and the man each paying for the consequences of the war is exquisitely acted. The shepherd having fought in Morocco and battle scarred; the boy living through the hellish of dictator sponsored privilege and absolute poverty. This is crystallised when towards the end the foreman and the shepherd confront each other and though having worn the same uniform, they fought different wars the consequences of which are two very different Spain’s.

Adapted by from a novel by Jesus Carrasco (which I haven’t read) Benito Zambrano’s film is heavy on principles and metaphor as the shepherd and the boy unravel each other’s stories. Their experiences do not necessarily have to bind them to a life course; there are always choices. Tosar and López handle this well with what is at times quite clunky dialogue. Callejo as the foreman is more straightforward as the villain, though thankfully not hamming it up, playing it straight as a vicious and sadistic individual.

It is beautifully photographed by Pau Esteve the barren landscapes glistening under the unforgiving power of the sun conjuring up the majestic westerns of Sergio Leone. Those too come to mind with the set pieces though the violence is less about orchestration rather relaying the simple ugliness of it. All of it beautifully underscored by Mikel Salas’s outstanding music.