Poachers

A mountain village in Spain. Ángel poaches in the forest and sells what he takes. He lives in the same house as his mother Martina. She is the only voice in that house; she keeps her son to herself and shares him with nobody. One day Ángel meets Milagros, a young woman who has run from a reform school, and brings her home. Martina makes a show of welcoming her. The house is too small for three. Who will not let go of whom is clear, and the ending follows from it. José Luis Borau directs the Spanish film; eighty-two minutes, with Lola Gaos as Martina and Ovidi Montllor as Ángel. Borau wrote it with Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón. It was made in the last months of Franco's rule and barely got past the censors, and it won the Golden Shell at San Sebastián in 1975.