Country: Spain
A modest family from the Spanish country side decides to emigrate to the capital city of Madrid in an effort to earn more money and become part of the post-war society but soon they struggle to survive and have to face the hostile environment of the concrete jungle: poverty, misery, unemployment and crime among other hindrances.
The main story revolves around the three brothers (like in Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers, except that this one was made 9 years before): Pepé, Tonia and Manolo, whom their different ambitions corrupt their souls little by little while coping with thieves and gangsters like Chamberlein, greedy and materialistic women like Pili or with the inability to find a job due to lack of skills and techniques to perform any job in the industrial field (like the scene when their father is in a factory and he's about to faint, that sequence contains a nice mixing of images and sounds and maybe is the only highlighting moment in the editing department).
We can see how Spain was a developing country at the time, living with the consequences of the Spanish Civil War and the economic impact of the Second War World. This film is considered part of the Spanish neorealism, and was shot basically without technique like many other neorealist films from the era such as Vittorio De Sica's "Ladri di Biciclette", also the ending and some parts of the movie had been adultarated and censored by the Spanish goverment and the Catholic Church but fortunately they were restored in recent years.
I personally enjoyed the dark humor dialogues in the film that work very well, especifically the ones on machismo and sexism. A great Spanish film which unfortunately has been forgotten over time.
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