Víctor Erice

El Sur

El Sur

Ten years after making his mark on Spanish cinema with The Spirit of the Beehive, Víctor Erice returned to filmmaking with this adaptation of a novella by Adelaida García Morales, which deepens the director’s fascination with childhood, fantasy, and the legacy of his country’s civil war. In the North of Spain, Estrella grows up captivated by her father, a doctor with mystical powers—and by the enigma of his youth in the South, a near-mythical region whose secrets haunt Estrella more and more as time goes on. Though Erice’s original vision also encompassed a section set in the South itself, scenes that were never shot, El Sur remains an experience of rare perfection and satisfaction, drawing on painterly cinematography by José Luis Alcaine to evoke the enchantments of memory and the inaccessible, inescapable mysteries of the past.

Film Info

  • Spain
  • 1983
  • 94 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • Spanish
  • Spine #927

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Interview from 2003 with director Víctor Erice
  • New program on the making of the film, featuring interviews from 2012 with actors Omero Antonutti, Sonsoles Aranguren, and Icíar Bollaín; cinematographerJosé Luis Alcaine; and camera operator Alfredo Mayo
  • Hour-long episode of ¡Qué grande es el cine! from 1996, featuring film critics Miguel Marías, Miguel Rubio, and Juan Cobos discussing El Sur
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by novelist and critic Elvira Lindo, and a new edition of the 1985 novella by Adelaida García Morales on which the film is based

    New cover design by Michael Boland

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Interview from 2003 with director Víctor Erice
  • New program on the making of the film, featuring interviews from 2012 with actors Omero Antonutti, Sonsoles Aranguren, and Icíar Bollaín; cinematographerJosé Luis Alcaine; and camera operator Alfredo Mayo
  • Hour-long episode of ¡Qué grande es el cine! from 1996, featuring film critics Miguel Marías, Miguel Rubio, and Juan Cobos discussing El Sur
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by novelist and critic Elvira Lindo, and a new edition of the 1985 novella by Adelaida García Morales on which the film is based

    New cover design by Michael Boland
El Sur
Cast
Omero Antonutti
Agustín
Sonsoles Aranguren
Estrella (age eight)
Icíar Bollaín
Estrella (age fifteen)
Lola Cardona
Julia
Rafaela Aparicio
Milagros
Aurora Clément
Laura/Irene Ríos
María Caro
Casilda
Germaine Montero
Doña Rosario
José Vivó
Waiter
María Massip
Voice of Estrella (narrator)
Credits
Director
Víctor Erice
Screenplay by
Víctor Erice
Based on the novella by
Adelaida García Morales
Produced by
Elías Querejeta
In collaboration with
Televisión Española S.A
Director of photography
José Luis Alcaine
Production manager
Primitivo Álvaro
Editor
Pablo G. del Amo

Current

El Sur: A Complete Incomplete Film
El Sur: A Complete Incomplete Film

At a time when Spain was trying to leave its past behind, master filmmaker Víctor Erice transported viewers back to the post–Civil War era, examining its traumas through the eyes of a child.

By Elvira Lindo

​Jon Dieringer’s Top 10
​Jon Dieringer’s Top 10

The founder of the website Screen Slate picks a selection of favorites, including an ’80s indie gem, shockers ranging from Eraserhead to Canoa, and two films that capture the “twilit feeling of childhood.”