Ninth session of the Luis García Berlanga retrospective, with a screening of The National Shotgun (1978). This is the first film of Berlanga's “national trilogy”, which the director dedicated to the decaying powers of Francoist Spain, and it will be featured in its entirety in this film programme.

4 MAY | SUN | 5PM

LA ESCOPETA NACIONAL | THE NATIONAL SHOTGUN

Luis García Berlanga | ESP | 1978 | 95’

The script for La Escopeta Nacional allegedly originated from a news story about an accident suffered by Franco's daughter during a hunting trip, which Berlanga learnt about from the gossip pages of Hola! Magazine. Catalan businessman Jaume Canivell travels to Madrid with his mistress to take part in a luxurious hunting trip organized by a bankrupt aristocrat. His aim is to establish contacts with influential people and sell state-of-the-art intercoms to the regime's conservative elite. But what seemed like a business opportunity turns into a parade of hypocrisy, petty interests and moral decadence among politicians, clergymen and businessmen who, during that weekend of hunting, reveal their true intentions, exposing the corruption and opportunism on which the regime was based. La Escopeta Nacional is therefore a fierce critique of the Francoist elite, dismantling the backstage of power and the decadence of an era with corrosive irony and precision.