Vacas

With this brilliant debut film, Julio Medem placed himself almost instantly into the ranks of Spain's leading directors, along with Carlos Saura and Pedro Almodovar.

From the suspenseful footage of barefoot woodchoppers to the sprawling family rivalries to the chaos of war, Medem brings a unique vision and a sharp edge to this Basque historical saga. His later films are equally masterful, but this is the one time he chooses to grapple with the history of his Basque homeland instead of telling a contemporary and character-centered story.

The plot can be a bit tricky to follow for those unfamiliar with Spanish history, and the lush beauty of the film definitely calls more for a big screen than for video. I can't make your screen bigger, but as for the history, I may be able to help with what most confuses the typical American viewer:

The Carlists were supporters of a series of 19th century pretenders to the Spanish throne and constituted an alliance of Basque nationalists with right-wing Spaniards, allied on the basis of Catholic faith. The Carlists advocated absolute monarchy (against the ruling liberal constitutional monarchy), but were willing to grant the Basque region considerable autonomy. Later, in the Spanish Civil War, the Basque nationalists allied to the left, siding with the secular Republic (which also offered them autonomy) against Franco's centralizing fascist forces. Thus to be a Basque nationalist family over the span of this history led to some paradoxical alliances over time.

If life itself is cyclical, the telling of it must be so, too. This is evident in films like `Los Amantes del Círculo Polar' (1998) (qv) and `Lucía y el Sexo' (2001) (qv), both seen a long way previously to `Vacas' which I have only just recently been able to see - and where better but on the Basque Channel (Euskal Telebista).

This story takes up over 60 years leading up to the eve of the Spanish Civil War in the high valleys and hills of Euskadi (Basque Country). Two rival families eke out a living. Highly charged with symbolisms - cows - and metaphorisms, as well as the ever-present rôle of Basque culture, such as the `aizkolari', the film proceeds unhurriedly through the years, unveiling an almost mysterious world of superstitions, envy and mistrust.

The cyclical effect of the film is enhanced by some of the main actors - Carmelo Gómez, for example - playing more than one character as the years go by, thus assuring that the spectator has to be on his toes and aware of how the film's story is progressing.

Good work here by Carmelo Gómez, and the rest of the cast is well up to Medem's demands. Superb photography by Carles Gusi, and as ever Alberto Iglesias' music is really good, mirroring well the scenery, its people and the story line. Well worth watching if you get the chance.

. but this is not one. So what ? The opening scene, where a woodcutter's keeps swinging an axe, is a masterpiece of manipulation : you keep on expecting something dreadful until the tension becomes unbearable, though nothing really happens. This is a current running through the film, which makes you think that Medem could make the scariest thriller if he wanted to, all through a weird familial story. After this brilliant first attempt, he did the masterpiece "Red Squirrel", so what more could you ask for ? One of today's most underrated films.

two of the most fascinating subjects in Carl Jung's psychoanalysis are synchronicity and the collective unconscious with its archetypes. i am sure Jung would have loved this movie if he was alive this same day. the subliminal moments of the movie are those when the most remote events, people and/or things seem to coincide in one point regardless of time and space. this is what Carl Jung calls 'synchronicity'. according to Jung, this synchronicities happen in our lives and their function is to indicate a meaning and purpose in life. from the beginning we can see how this strange coincidences point towards a destiny. this type of strange coincidences happen to many people around the world during their lives.

the symbolism is most obvious in manuel's drawings. the way that manuel who appears as disconnected and insane, is on the contrary a well tuned connection with the collective unconscious, therefore, he has developed a strong sense of intuition where he can transcend and 'see' meaningful events in the future. the shape of things to come is what his drawings are about.

an excellent movie!

by the way, please excuse my English if you find some wrong spelling and some grammatical mistakes. English is my second language.

thank you

Since 'Los Amantes del Círculo Polar' (1998), Julio Medem has been in my good books. This is one of his earlier masterpiece and I think this is one of the most powerful European movie in the 1990s, but very underrated, maybe because the Basque region (where the film sets) is not very popular nowadays. But if you watch this film, you will realize that those people are just like us with human feelings (fear, love, courage) and you will tolerate them. The only thing to do is to look into their eyes and you will understand that these people have been suffer and fight for freedom for centuries. Julio Medem is the most sophisticated and most sensitive contemporary Spanish director and in lot of aspects his works are much better than Almodóvar's and Saura's films because his style is cleared-out. This film is only 91 minutes long but it covers the story of two rival families from 1875 till 1936 so the story is very tense. But in my opinion if someone knows what he wants to say, he can say it in short and says the entity. Medem says the entity. The scenes of the woodsmen contest is one of the most thrilling and exciting scene what I've ever seen. The cinematography and the music are also superb it's full of surprising cinematographical solutions, like in the 'Los Amantes...'.

Check this film, you won't be disappointed and you will find a real treasure and become a fan of Julio Medem. 100%