The Hooligans
(Los Golfos)
Carlos Saura / Spain / 1959 / 88 min
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Los Golfos presents the harrowing story of a teenage gang who plan toJulian, Ramon, Juan, El Chato, Paco and Manolo are a teenage gang (played by street children) living in the outskirts of Madrid. One of them wants to be a bullfighter and his friends execute a heist to finance Juan’s dream. One member of the group dies after mugging a taxi driver and run away to see the premiere of Juan as a bullfighter. Inspired by the work of Luis Buñuel and with a production hampered by censor’s delays, Saura referred to his as ‘the most difficult film of his career’. A near-documentary vision of the impossibility of social mobility.
About the Director
Carlos Saura was born in Huesca. He then moved to Madrid to continue his Industrial Engineering career. Was removed from film school for strictly political reasons. In 1959 he filmed Los Golfos (1962). In this film he tried to create a sort of Spanish Neo-Realism by tackling the juvenile delinquency in the Madrid’s poor quarters from a sociological point of view. Saura is a well accepted director both nationally and internationally, and in proof of it he won many awards: Silver Bear in the Berlin Festival for The Hunt (1966), Peppermint Frappè (1967). Special Jury award in Cannes for Cousin Angelica, and for Cría Cuervos. Also the film Mama turns 100 (1979) got an Oscar nomination in 1979 as the best foreign film, and it won the Special Jury award at the San Sebastian Festival. In 1990, he won two Goya award as best adapted screenplay writer and best director.