I watched El Infierno Prometido in a public showing in La Unión last week. It is quite simply one of the best films I have ever seen. Like Jean Cocteau´s masterpiece, it is a take on the Orpheus story. I had seen a couple of clips on the internet that intrigued me but once I read it was made in Super 8 I rather lost hope of viewing it. Fortunately, it has now been remastered almost seamlessly. The viewing in La Unión was part of the prodigious Cante de las Minas festival. The film´s opening scenes contain a martinete (an unaccompanied Flamenco form to the rhythm of blows on a forge). This Orpheus is a very physical and muscular one. From the clips I had seen I was drawn to the photography of the tortured landscape of the Sierra Minera Apart from its visual beauty the film has much else to offer. The actors are interesting. Ginés García Millán is outstanding in the central role. He was to make his name later on TV in more conventional parts. I also particularly liked Franco Citti playing Charon with dignity and Margarita Lozano playing Remedios. Remedios is a kind of holy woman who has seen the Virgin. She is a similar character to The Oracle in the Matrix. The extraordinary is hidden within the ordinary.The film also has a lot of dark humour of the kind that turns up in the work of Alex de la Iglesia and Almodovar.
Above all the film is worth seeing for its poetry and it use of allegory, There is a geographical quirk in the Sierra Minera that makes the setting perfect. The hero, in his journey to look for his lady, jumps over the metal side of the beginning of the Portmán road beside a sign which has La Esperanza crossed out. That part of La Unión is known as La Esperanza. This gives a perfectly Dantesque twist of abandoning hope en route for hell. An earlier scene had been set in the La Esperanza cemetery. The quarry spoils behind once caused an ecological disaster there burying living with dead. While this is not part of the film it is part of the history of the spot. That very same quarry, Brunita, becomes the water on which Charon ferries Otelo, his Orpheus, on a rough raft made of a pallet. The quarry is filled with acidic reddish water which is perfect for a river of hell, especially as it leads to the next area which is a ravine known as the Barranco de los Infiernos. In the film, a sign Los Infiernos marks the area. While this no longer exists, the name certainly does on maps. What better spot could exist for the hero´s journey beyond hell?
I would love to buy a DVD of this film and see it again frequently. There are depths in its texts and its symbolism. Things I missed while simply following the story. I would love to watch those points again. His allegories are beautiful in the manner of Murnau´s films. While Chumilla-Carbajosa is a supremely talented director he is probably not that good at getting his work before the public. A limited edition of a Blu-Ray version, a CD and book in a box was given to the Mayor of La Unión and some of those associated it but nothing was on sale to the public. A basic DVD would be wonderful for film buffs everywhere. Without that and only limited showings years apart very few people will get to see this marvellous film.
