Carlos Saura (1932–2023) was one of Spain’s most celebrated and prolific directors. He is known for films that offer social and political commentary and use allegory to explore Spanish identity. He was encouraged to pursue a career in cinema by his older brother, Antonio Saura, whose large-scale painting “Portrait of Mari” is in the Meadows Museum’s permanent collection. In 2023, just one day after his death, Carlos Saura received an honorary Goya award in recognition of his contribution to modern Spanish cinema. This fall the Meadows Museum is proud to collaborate with Dallas Film to present three outstanding works by this great director.

This month:
Cría cuervos (Raise Ravens), 1976
Spanish with English subtitles | 105 minutes | Rated PG
Filmed while General Franco was on his deathbed, Cría cuervos melds the personal and the political in its portrait of a middle-class family dealing with the legacy of fascism; its title derives from the Spanish proverb, “Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos” (“Raise ravens and they’ll peck out your eyes.”) The film centers on an orphaned eight-year-old girl living in Madrid with her aunt and two sisters as she mourns the death of her mother, whom she conjures as a ghost. Seamlessly shifting between fantasy and reality, the film subtly evokes the complex feelings of childhood and the struggles of a nation emerging from the shadows. “Cría cuervos” received the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix (Special Jury Prize) in 1976 and was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards.

$5; free for members at the Goya/Individual level and up and SMU students