페레 포르타베야의 장편 데뷔작. 감독은 제목을 통해 프랑코 체제가 시작된 1939년부터 영화가 발표된 시기까지의 세월을 암흑의 시기로 빗대고 있다. 명망 높은 카탈로니아 시인 후안 브로사와의 공동작업으로 만들어졌다. “일상의 부조리함을 드러내는 초-현실적 단편들”(페레 포르타베야)로 이루어진 영화.
Pere Portabella’s first work as a director starts with the following phrase: “defeated…but not conquered”. This may or should be taken as an allusion to the technical K.O. taken by Portabella from Franco’s regime during the sixties as regards his work as a producer. Through the extremely raging playthings of the words of Catalan poet Joan Brossa, Portabella attempts to dismantle the forms of advertising discourse of that time.
A former convict, named Raul Vela, and a cabaret singer, called Clara, are a couple who tries to lead a normal life. He has found an employment and she wants to leave the cabaret. One day an old chief, who wants to disappear, proposes him to justify his supposed death in a supposed accident. In exchange, Raúl will receive one hundred thousand pesetas as gratification. Raul refuses to engage in the deception. Shortly after, he reads in a newspaper about the death of Cervera, which makes the police relate him to the case.
Blanquita, a very superstitious Cuban young woman, visits a fortune teller on the eve of her wedding to Roberto. She predicts that her first husband is destined to die, as well as would not make her happy. Believing this and according to her uncle, Blanquita starts looking for a man about to die, with the intention to marry him, then become widower and take Roberto as her second husband, thus freeing him from the curse.
스페인의 바닷가에서 어부들이 두 남녀의 시체를 발견한다. 사람들이 놀라는 가운데 한 노인만이 이들의 사연을 알고 있는 듯하다. 과거, 판도라는 모든 남자들이 연모했지만 정작 그녀는 어떤 남자도 사랑하지 않는다. 그때 신비에 싸인 선장 헨드릭이 마을에 등장하자 판도라는 마음이 흔들리는 걸 느낀다. 그러나 사실 헨드릭은 신의 저주를 안고 살아가는 남자였다.
