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Cria!

Play trailer Cria! PG 1976 1h 55m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 20 Reviews 94% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
A little girl (Ana Torrent) and her sisters are placed with an aunt (Geraldine Chaplin) in Madrid after their father dies during adultery.
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Cria!

Critics Reviews

View All (20) Critics Reviews
Ryan Gilbey New Statesman Her [Torrent] expression in Cra cuervos is blank and beautiful, her gaze unfaltering. It's no exaggeration to say that there would be no movie without her: so much of the characterisation is embedded in her stillness. May 31, 2013 Full Review Philip French Guardian The title refers to the old saying: "Raise ravens and they'll peck your eyes out." Jun 12, 2011 Full Review Derek Malcolm London Evening Standard It's unsettling, moving and funny in turn, and a clear criticism of a regime that stifled the Spanish for decades. Rated: 4/5 Jun 10, 2011 Full Review Jeremy Carr Vague Visages ...this picture is a passionate invocation to the perhaps ignored impact that everyday occurrences have on children... Nov 16, 2023 Full Review Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) [Carlos] Saura's film is both chilling and tender. [Full review in Spanish] Aug 16, 2023 Full Review Carla Monfort Espinof ... a perverse walk through childhood with surreal touches that allegorically speaks to the last stage of the Franco regime, with two main actresses who have never been better. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 4.5/5 Feb 17, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (180) audience reviews
Leo P Porque te vas? Can't live with you and without you. Similar to El Espíritu de la Colmena in more than one aspect(Ana Torrent.)Very,very depressing and sad. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/11/24 Full Review Audience Member There are a few tense moments where the film becomes a bit cerebral and even emotionally compelling. Casting a prepubescent Ana torrent as the lead in a very adult kind of film was a risky but obviously effective and fascinating move. She has a fair amount of magnetism that facilitates the atmosphere of an albeit boring foreign 70's drama. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review William L The struggles of childhood, particularly a naive innocence surrounding a young girl whose past sufferings have convinced her that she has the power to inflict death and obsessed with it, are contrasted against the controlling nature of the Franco Regime of Spain; Torrent's Ana and her siblings find themselves in an unfamiliar environment - the household of their generally caring, but strict and determined Aunt Paulina - and must learn both the imposed reality of their new world and the universal truths of life (death, etc.) simultaneously. The real problem is how to differentiate the two. Saura depicts Ana's struggles using a twist on the usually idyllic depiction of childhood - she is wholly dependent on her Aunt, answers to difficult questions are sanitized for her, and there is a general air of melancholy where hope should lie, but Ana and her siblings are so young and inexperienced that even grief and mourning aren't in their emotional vocabulary. With the winds of political change being felt as Franco lay dying, Cría cuervos was a bold political statement on the relationship that the dictator's government had with the people of the nation: not without some care (at least conceptually) but restrictive, patronizing, and intermittently repressive. (4/5) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/17/21 Full Review william k Carlos Saura's film is told through the perspective of a young child (and her older self) and interweaves past, present and future​, but also includes imagined and surreal scenes, albeit staged so masterfully that it all remains stringent and comprehensible and the political implications are apparent; again, Geraldine Chaplin convinces in a double role (as the mother and as the adult child). Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review raphael g So beautiful. So sad... Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review dave s Carlos Saura's Cria Cuervos, a subtly political film, was produced at the end of Francisco Franco's fascist dictatorship in Spain and tells the story of a young girl who escapes the sadness of everyday life through fantasy. Eight-year old Ana's mother died of cancer and her father, an officer in Franco's regime, died while in the arms of his good friend's wife, witnessed by Ana. In fantasy sequences throughout the film, she is comforted by her loving mother and periodically conjures her cold and distant father. Ana is preoccupied by death, perhaps as a way to escape her sadness. Ana Torrent is spectacular as the young girl, her eyes as expressive as her dialogue. The film is full of haunting scenes that will stick with the viewer for quite some time. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis A little girl (Ana Torrent) and her sisters are placed with an aunt (Geraldine Chaplin) in Madrid after their father dies during adultery.
Director
Carlos Saura
Producer
Elias Querejeta
Screenwriter
Carlos Saura
Production Co
Elías Querejeta Producciones Cinematográficas S.L.
Rating
PG
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 21, 2009
Runtime
1h 55m
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