The Enchanted Forest

A forest in Galicia, in northern Spain. Malvís is tired of working as a day labourer and has taken up banditry; he tries to rob people passing through the forest and is bad at it. There are others around the wood: a woman carrying water, a ghost, a man living as a fugitive, a couple who want to dig a well, young people in love. The film tells their stories in turn and folded into each other. José Luis Cuerda directs. Alfredo Landa plays Malvís. The source is a novel by Wenceslao Fernández Flórez. The structure is episodic: there is no single plot, only the sum of the lives around the forest. The tone comes from the Galician narrative tradition; the real and the supernatural sit on one plane and nobody is surprised that there is a ghost. Poverty is constantly present behind. Most of the characters are hungry and hunger decides what they do; the comedy comes out of that. Alfredo Landa is among the best known actors in Spanish cinema and this counts as one of the best loved parts of his career. It became a classic in Spain and appears regularly on lists of the best Spanish films. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish cinema and episodic, fable like narrative. Who it is not for: the plot is scattered, the episodes are not of equal strength, and the local references are closed from outside.