Demonios en el Jardín (English: Demons in the Garden) is a 1982 Spanish film directed by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, starring Ángela Molina, Ana Belén and Imanol Arias. The film is about a dysfunctional family living in rural Spain during the first years of Franco's dictatorship.
Plot
In a small Spanish village, Gloria, the imperious head of a troubled family, is devoted to her two sons. The brothers, Óscar and Juan, have frequent violent disputes. Óscar, the oldest, and his steel-willed mother run the family's grocery store called el Jardín (The Garden), which does a brisk business in the black market. When Óscar, marries Juan's lover Ana, Juan, the beloved handsome second son decides to better his fortunes in Madrid joining the Nationalist Army. Ana, who loves him, is heartbroken. Juan also leaves behind his impoverished cousin, Ángela, pregnant with his child. She moves to the countryside and gives birth to a boy, Juanito.
Years later, Óscar and Ana remain childless. Gloria wants to bring her illegitimate grandson and only heir, into the family circle. When Juanito is stricken with rheumatic fever, while searching for his father, Ángela agrees to let him stay at el Jardin. Everyone spoil the boy, and he becomes close to Ana. However, he misses his mother and she returns to live with the family. One day Juanito hears that his father will pass with Franco’s retinue; he finally meets him and discovers he is only a waiter in the service of Franco’s personal bodyguard.
The years move on and Juanito has recovered from the rheumatic heart condition, he is totally disenchanted with his father. He learns that his father is visiting Ana, Óscar’s wife. Because Juan now needs money, Ana steals one thousand pesetas from the family safe, the profits from the black-marketing the family practiced to survive during the war. Gloria discovers the theft but blames it upon Ángela, who is dragged off to jail by the local Civil Guards. Gloria discovers the truth and urges Juan to return home to marry Ángela so that the family will have a legitimate heir. Ángela, however, refuses to marry the callow Juan, who is still in love with Ana.
Returning once more to el Jardin, Juan again tries to seduce Ana, but she is so enraged by Juan behavior that she shoots him in the shoulder with a hand gun. Óscar and Juan fight fiercely in their own sibling love-hate relationship, first over Ana, then Ángela.
On the following day, Juanito’s birthday is celebrated and the entire family is gathered by the local photographer for a family portrait in front of el Jardín. The film ends in a freeze frame of the photograph, offering no conclusions, but exposing all the hidden hypocrisy within these petite bourgeois family.
Cast
References
- Schwartz, Ronald, The Great Spanish Films: 1950 - 1990, Scarecrow Press, London, 1991, ISBN 0-8108-2488-4
External links
