Alberto Cubo

Just watched #LaBolaNegra in its Gala at the #LFF, and I ADORED THIS FILM so much! A TRIUMPH all around! Los Javis really did it, delivering an audacious, devastating, sprawling tale about oppression’s power to bury stories and prevent human connection, facing the unwavering will of love, history & arts to defy it. Several timelines, once set apart by all kinds of human oppression you can think of, eventually come together in a beautifully looking film that combines incredible period set pieces & contemporary ones, showing all kinds of oppressed love and the long term consequences of it, with an incredible score that goes on a crescendo along with the script, always culminating in the most visceral moments of the film. And what a gift this whole cast really was. #Guitarricadelafuente just portrays so well the restrains of a tormented soul who was never allowed to live his passions - or to live at all - and showing an incredible chemistry with #MiguelBernardeau despite the invisible barrier between their characters! #CarlosGonzález & #LolaDueñas incredible in their toxic relationship as son and mother, which made the audience at the #LFF laugh at some moments, and also cry in other moments of their complex story! #PenélopeCruz I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen her so radiant, in such an enchanting portrayal as what she’s done portraying the singer #NenéRomero here. Her presence, talent and beauty electrified the few scenes she was in, and her moments with the soldiers are HI-LA-RI-OUS! All the showmanship is so well enveloped by an exquisite cinematography and production design which allow us to travel back and forth between different eras and still feel so immersed the whole time. It’s not an exaggeration, LA BOLA NEGRA feels and looks so visually rich in detail, in accuracy, and so grounded in a harsh reality. The pacing was so good that, when our screening finished, I was shocked to see how late it was and how long this epic was, without ever making me feel the time pass by. Many might summarize #LaBolaNegra as a heartbreaking reclamation of queer history, but the film is so much more than that. LA BOLA NEGRA is an ambitious, moving epic offering a chance of reckoning of Spain with its own past, way too similar to the bloody and overwhelmingly excruciating marks of wars and totalitarianism left in almost every single nation in the world. It’s nice like the queer story can serve as an allegory to historical events as much as the historical events would perfectly work as an allegory of what queer line would be like in the past century. But it also shows in a very delicate way the complexity of human nature. Both oppression and repression & love and empathy often come from the most unexpected people, in the most unexpected ways. We all can do harm to one another, but we all can be light and understanding of love even in the darkest moments. There is no Pure Evil nor Perfect goodness. Humans are complex, relationships are complex. It’s one of those films that stay with us, with so much to unpack, so many, beautiful and hurtful messages that will resonate in different ways with different people. Get ready for an award season sweeper! #LABOLANEGRA debuts on OCT 16 exclusively in theatres for 46 days, then heads to streaming on #NETFLIX on DEC 02.