Land Without Bread - 1933

Country: Spain

Language: French (original commentary)

Director: Luis Buñuel

Writers: Luis Buñuel (commentary), Luis Buñuel (writer), Maurice Legendre (book - uncredited), Rafael Sánchez Ventura (commentary), Pierre Unik (commentary)

Stars: Abel Jacquin and Alexandre O'Neill

Release Date: December 1933 (Spain)

Also known as: Föld, kenyér nélkül (Hungary); Gi horis psomi (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); Land Without Bread             (International - English title); Land ohne Brot (Germany); Las Hurdes - maa ilman leipää (Finland); Las hurdes, tierra sin pan (Spain - long title); Terra Sem Pão (Portugal); Terra senza pane (Italy); Terre sans pain (France); Tierra sin pan             (Spain - short title); Zeme bez chleba (Czechoslovakia - Czech title).

Filming Locations: Las Hurdes, Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain

Production Co: Ramón Acín

Runtime: USA: 30 min

Sound Mix: Mono

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Spain | Food | River | Village | Animal Suffering  | Rural Setting | Old Woman | Bees | Poverty | Surrealism | Cemetery | Drunkenness | Low Life | Religion | Banned Film | Flies | Death | Fake Documentary | Animal Death | Subversive | Disease | Goat | Street Urchin | Struggle | Death Of Baby | Dead Baby | Dwarf | Snake | Illness | Pig | Schoolmaster | Indigenous People | Cretin | Hunger | Mosquito | Bee Attack | Misery | Leaf | Beehive | Orphan | Suffering | Church | Hardship | Fatal Illness | Actual Animal Killed | Despair | School | Donkey | Malaria | Cult Film | Fever | Narration | Death Of Child

Genres: Documentary | Short

Today the region of Las Hurdes is fairly developed and is considered as one of the leading areas for rural tourism in Spain. Green mountains, lots of rivers and natural swimming pools, great food and friendly people, make Las Hurdes an excellent natural spot to visit. 

Trivia

Last film directed solely by Luis Buñuel until Gran Casino, with the exception of compilation films he made while working at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, such as El Vaticano de Pio XII (1940).

This film was banned from being shown in Spain by the Spanish government from 1933-1936.

Luis Buñuel was not above slaughtering several animals to deliver his message; he ordered the ailing donkey to be spread with honey so he could film it being stung to death by bees. Nor was the mountain goat falling off the mountain an accident, shot by Buñuel's crew for the desired sequence.

Connections

Edited into Origins of the 21st Century (2000)

Featured in Histoire(s) du cinéma: Les signes parmi nous (1998) (Video)

Speaking of Bunuel (2000)

Soundtracks

"Fourth Symphony"(uncredited)

Written by Johannes Brahms