LFF: Blancanieves

In 1920s Spain, renowned matador Antonio Villalta prepares to go into the ring while his pregnant wife, the saintly Carmen de Triana, watches in anticipation. As her husband suffers a goring, Carmen goes into childbirth, unleashing a series of tragic events that have long-lasting consequences for the family. Taking its inspiration from the Brothers’ Grimm story, Pablo Berger offers a gothic, black & white treatment of the myth of Snow White. A silent melodrama with a suitably malevolent villain, a chorus of enterprising dwarfs, a resourceful heroine and sumptuous production design, Blancanieves offers a sensory journey into a mythical and cinematic past. Boasting an outstanding original score by Alfonso de Vilallonga (whose previous soundtracks include Brad Anderson’s Transiberian and Isabel Coixet’s My Life Without Me), this imaginative refashioning of a classic fairytale brings something of the spirit of Tim Burton to the romantic landscape of Southern Spain.