Year of Enlightment

Year of Enlightment

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Fernando Trueba
Produced by Andrés Vicente Gómez
Written by Rafael Azcona
Fernando Trueba
Starring Jorge Sanz,
Maribel Verdú,
Manuel Alexandre,
Chus Lampreave,
Verónica Forqué
Music by Francisco Guerrero
Cinematography Juan Amorós
Edited by Carmen Frías
Release dates
 5 December 1986
Running time
 103 minutes
Country Spain
Language Spanish

Year of Enlightment (Spanish: El Año de las Luces, and also released as The Year of the Awakening) is a 1986 Spanish film directed by Fernando Trueba, starring Jorge Sanz and Maribel Verdú. The film is a coming of age story of a sixteen-year-old boy finding love and sex in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. The film was awarded the Silver Bear at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.[1]

Plot

In the spring of 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil war, two sons of a fallen soldier, Manolo, a sixteen-year-old boy, and his eight-year-old little brother Jesús are suffering from symptoms of tuberculosis. Their much older brother, Pepe, takes them to a rural sanatorium in Sierra de Gata near the border with Portugal. They are placed there to recover their health under the watch of Irene, the director.

Manolo is the only adolescent, all the others are children. Starting his sexual awakening, he is smitten by Vicenta, the attractive woman in charge of the care of the children. Every night when she undresses Manolo spies her. However, Manolo’s flirtations and sexual advances do not find response in either Vicenta or Paquita, a young girl who also works at the sanatorium. Instead is the sexually repress head nurse Irene, who is infatuated with the young boy. Force to assist to classes against his will with the much younger children in residence, Manolo clashes violently with the conservative authoritarianism of Doña Tránsito, the teacher. After a confrontation with her, Manolo is left to study on his own devices. Emilio an old free thinker and bidel of the sanatorium guides Manolo in his readings and teaches him about Montaigne, Balzac and Flaubert.

Disappointed with the sudden departure of Vicenta, who has to leave her job, Manolo is soon infatuated with Vicenta’s successor, María Jesús, a young pretty girl from the village and only one year his junior. Manolo’s friend, Emilio, encourages him in the awakening of his romance with María Jesús. The two teenagers are promptly discovering together their first love and sexual awakening. The local priest abruptly stops their romance; María Jesús is actually his illegitimate daughter. Pepe comes back to take Manolo and Jesús with the rest of their family and the young lovers are separated forever.

Cast

The two teenage leads Jorge Sanz and Maribel Verdú were subsequently cast together in many Spanish films through the 1980s and 1990s most notably in Amantes directed by Vicente Aranda.

Overview

El Año de las Luces, a sensitive rites of passage film was co-authored by Rafael Azcona and the director Fernando Trueba, who later worked together on the Oscar-winning Belle Epoque a film similar in tone, setting and period. El Año de las Luces, is based on an episode of the real life of Manule Huete the director’s father in law. A large scale production it was shot with panoramic lenses, in gorgeous color in Ponte de Lima, Portugal, Quintanar de Sanabria, Zamora and in Madrid. It premiered on December 5, 1986 and was awarded with a Silver Bear for an outstanding single achievement at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.[1][2]

DVD release

El Año de las Luces is available in Region 2 DVD in Spanish with no English subtitles.

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Berlinale: 1987 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2011-02-27.
  2. ↑ Schwartz, The Great Spanish Films, p. 123

References

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