Synopsis

Azcona and Berlanga’s first feature-film collaboration, Plácido turns a charitable Christmas dinner into a subversive vision of Francoist Spain. While prominent citizens publicly display compassion by inviting poor people to dine with them, Plácido desperately tries to prevent the repossession of his humble three-wheeled vehicle. Around him, generosity becomes spectacle as Christian morality dissolves into selfishness. Berlanga’s crowded ensemble scenes, frantic rhythm, and dark humour expose respectable society’s indifference to genuine suffering. Hilarious yet merciless, Plácido cleverly slips beneath the censor’s gaze to reveal the hypocrisy sustaining bourgeois appearances under Franco’s authoritarian rule.