Rafael Azcona
Over a prolific fifty-year career, Rafael Azcona was one of Spain’s most influential screenwriters, a master observer of ordinary lives, social cruelty, and the absurd compromises demanded by survival. Beginning as a novelist and humorist, he brought to cinema a distinctive blend of dark comedy, compassion, and unsparing political insight. This collaboration with Instituto Cervantes in London commemorates his centenary with Plácido and El verdugo, two of his finest achievements and enduring landmarks in the history of Spanish cinema.
Placido
As respectable citizens put their Christmas charity on show, Plácido scrambles to save his three-wheeler. A merciless comedy of generosity and hypocrisy.
El Verdugo
To secure a flat, a timid man reluctantly takes his father-in-law’s job as an executioner. He is sure he’ll never have to carry out an execution.