Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (2019) is a Spanish animated drama for grown-ups you can watch online on iFILM. Director Salvador Simó tells a true story in ink.

Paris, 1930. The uproar over Buñuel's film The Golden Age leaves him broke, dropped by backers, and abandoned by his old collaborator Salvador Dalí. He wants to shoot a documentary about Las Hurdes, a starving mountain region of Spain where daily life looks like a nightmare. His anarchist sculptor friend Ramón Acín buys a lottery ticket, wins, and hands over the money to fund the project. Then the filming begins — and Buñuel's methods rattle the small crew around him.

Adapted from Fermín Solís's graphic novel, the film circles a real documentary, Las Hurdes: Land Without Bread (1933). It refuses to put genius on a pedestal, showing instead a stubborn, sometimes cruel man chasing himself through other people's misery. One for viewers who like films about filmmaking. Stream Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (2019) online on iFILM.