The House of Bernarda Alba

When her husband dies, Bernarda Alba declares eight years of mourning in her house: nobody goes out, nobody is seen, nobody speaks. Her five daughters have to live inside it. Because the eldest has the inheritance, the young man of the town courts her; but the one he wants is the youngest. The house starts to strain from within. Mario Camus directed the film from the play Federico García Lorca wrote in 1936. Lorca was killed at the start of the Civil War shortly after finishing it. The film takes place almost entirely inside one house and keeps the closed structure of the play. Irene Gutiérrez Caba plays Bernarda. The subject is oppression: not the kind that comes from outside but the kind produced inside the house.