Ana y los lobos (Carlos Saura, 1973)

The young but travelled Ana arrives in a manor in the countryside of Spain to work as nanny of three girls and finds a dysfunctional family: the matriarch is a sick old woman obsessed by death and having constant nervous breakdowns; her son José was raised dressing in girl’s clothes until his First Communion and is obsessed by military clothes and paraphernalia; Juan, the father of the three girls, a pervert since his childhood, writes pornographic letters to Ana; his wife, Luchy, has suicidal tendencies; and the mystic and religious eremite Fernando, who was inflicted to flagellation in his childhood, lives as a recluse in a cave. The presence of Ana disturbs the three brothers with tragic consequences.

Ana and the Wolves is a political allegory of Spain under Francisco Franco. The crumbling mansion is Spain, governed by an old crippled woman and inhabited by her sons who represent the strings that move the country with liberty cut off. José is the authoritarianism and represent the military; Fernando, the religious hypocrisy represents the church and Juan, embodying sexuality, represents the family. The three brothers, like wolves, stalk their prey and will not stop until they achieve their purpose. Ana, the foreigner in that closeted world, comes to disturb the internal order and for that pays the ultimate price.