Strange Voyage

Fernando Fernán Gómez's 1964 Spanish film starts from a real murder case. In a town near Madrid, Paquita and her brother Venancio are two people well into adulthood who behave like children, both living under the rule of their older sister Ignacia. What goes on in the house is the town's gossip, and the first half of the film builds that closed world. Then one member of the household disappears and the story slides into black comedy. It takes direct aim at provincial life, religious pressure and the suppression of sexuality, which is why it ran into the censorship of its day, had its title changed and went years without release. It is now counted among the cult works of Spanish cinema. The tone is strange, grotesque and uncomfortable. Who it's for: viewers who like black comedy and Spanish cinema under Franco. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a well-behaved genre film; the story is deliberately unbalanced.