Los Tarantos

In Barcelona, young members of two Roma families at odds with each other fall in love. Both sides are against the attachment and old scores come up in front of the young couple; nobody’s decision is in their own hands. The film sets the story into the mould of a classical tragedy, but draws its real strength from music and dance: flamenco here is not a display but the place where the characters say what they cannot speak. The account also shows the neighbourhood and the poverty of the city in that period. The account never explains the reason for the feud between the two families; that the reason has been forgotten is the film’s own point. Carmen Amaya and Antonio Gades appear in Francisco Rovira Beleta’s eighty three minute Spanish film, completed in 1963.