The Heifer

The Heifer (La vaquilla), directed by Luis García Berlanga, is a Spanish black comedy about a ragtag squad of Republican soldiers during the Spanish Civil War who cross enemy lines to steal the bull meant for a bullfight at the neighboring village's patron saint festival. Berlanga and screenwriter Rafael Azcona approach the war not as epic drama but as a grim survival struggle, filtered through the grotesque humor of the Spanish "esperpento" literary tradition. Berlanga had carried the idea for a film about the Civil War since the 1950s; it took thirty years from concept to actual production. As the first comedy made about the Civil War, the film became, on release, the highest grossing Spanish film in the country's history up to that point. Who it's for: anyone curious about a Spanish classic that treats the Civil War through a grotesque comedy built around a bull heist, thirty years in the making, and the country's highest grossing film upon release. Who it's not for: those wanting a solemn, serious drama about the war, since the film deliberately softens its brutality with absurdist humor.