Furtivos

Poachers is a 1975 Spanish film directed by José Luis Borau. It stars Lola Gaos, Ovidi Montllor and Alicia Sánchez. The script was written by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón and José Luis Borau. The film is a stark drama that portraits an oedipal relationship and its dire consequences. A great critical and commercial success, it won best picture at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 1975. The film was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 48th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. Furtivos is considered a classic of Spanish cinema. Plot Ángel, a soft-spoken withdrawn man, lives an isolated life in a rustic farmhouse in the woodlands around Segovia. His only company is his brash, domineering mother, Martina. Ángel is an "alimañero", a hunter in charge of killing wolves and other animals of prey in order to protect deer in a hunting wild reserve. To survive, he resorts to furtive deception of the local civil guards hunting the wild game and selling the meat and skins for profit. During the autumn hunting season, the local Governor comes to hunt stag with his entourage taking base at Ángel's rustic house. The Governor has special affection towards Martina, who was his wet nurse. Ángel goes to the provincial capital to buy traps, rope and nooses. He has killed a wolf taking the skin to sell it. In town, he is smitten with a young woman, Milagros, who is looking for a way out of her troubles. Milagros is the girlfriend of a well-known delinquent nicknamed "El Cuqui". She has escaped from the local reformatory for girls hoping to run away with her lover. With no money and still wearing the reformatory's uniform, she notices Ángel eating his lunch in the street and boldly seduces him taking him for a fool. Ángel buys her new clothes and after spending a clandestine evening in an out of the way hotel, he invites her to return to the forest with him. Initially reluctant, Milagros eventually leaves with him on a bus towards the forest. Meanwhile, Martina has been busy entertaining the childish and irritating Governor, who has come with some friends to hunt deer. Upset with her son's delay in town, Martina is furious when she sees him arriving with a girl in tow. She takes out her displace ire on a trapped she-wolf. Martina savagely kills the defenseless animal with an ax.