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Las ratas

  • 1997
  • 1h 37m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
75
YOUR RATING
Las ratas (1997)
Drama

In the mid-fifties, El Nini lives in the poorest and most forgotten rural Castile (Spain). He is a child with no more knowledge than those provided by nature. El Nini lives with his father i... Read allIn the mid-fifties, El Nini lives in the poorest and most forgotten rural Castile (Spain). He is a child with no more knowledge than those provided by nature. El Nini lives with his father in a cave, and with him he devotes himself to the hunting of water rats, the only means of ... Read allIn the mid-fifties, El Nini lives in the poorest and most forgotten rural Castile (Spain). He is a child with no more knowledge than those provided by nature. El Nini lives with his father in a cave, and with him he devotes himself to the hunting of water rats, the only means of subsistence they know. But when they are tried to deprive them of their roof and their liv... Read all

  • Director
    • Antonio Giménez Rico
  • Writers
    • Miguel Delibes
    • Antonio Giménez Rico
  • Stars
    • José Caride
    • Álvaro Monje
    • Francisco Algora
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    5.8/10
    75
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Antonio Giménez Rico
    • Writers
      • Miguel Delibes
      • Antonio Giménez Rico
    • Stars
      • José Caride
      • Álvaro Monje
      • Francisco Algora
    • 3User reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 nominations

    Photos

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    Top cast

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    José Caride
    • El Ratero
    Álvaro Monje
    Álvaro Monje
    • El Nini
    Francisco Algora
    Francisco Algora
    • Antoliano
    Concha Gómez Conde
    • Señora Clo
    Paloma Paso Jardiel
    • Columba
    Juan Jesús Valverde
    Juan Jesús Valverde
    • Justo
    Esperanza Alonso
    • Simeona
    José Conde
    José Conde
    • Luis
    Luis Perezagua
    • José Luis
    • (as Luis Pérezagua)
    Joaquín Hinojosa
    Joaquín Hinojosa
    • Cazador Furtivo
    Susi Sánchez
    Susi Sánchez
    • Doña Resu
    Jorge Merino
    • Malvino
    Lucas Rodríguez
    • Don Ciro, Sacerdote
    Ángel Terrón
    • Centenario
    Paulino Antón Castrillo
    • El Mudo
    Enrique Menéndez
    Fernando Ransanz
    Fernando Ransanz
    Abel Vitón
    • Director
      • Antonio Giménez Rico
    • Writers
      • Miguel Delibes
      • Antonio Giménez Rico
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    Storyline

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    User reviews3

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Try reading the book first: the film might then make more sense
    Almost like an echo of the past; almost like an echo of `Los Santos Inocentes' (1984); with careful deliberation Giménez Rico sought to transpose Miguel Delibe's novel into a filmed story; and that in itself is the problem. Rather than a classic story line, both the book and the film should be seen from an attitude in which you are observing a disconnected series of events depicting simple country people's lives in Spain in 1956; that the whole may have some sequential relationship is of secondary importance. There is nothing invented in Delibe's imagination: in those times, in backward Franco-owned Spain people DID kill pigs in the way seen in the film; people DID eat rats to survive hunger; people DID live in caves up in the hills as they had nowhere else…………. People DID pray for it to rain, and DID fire rockets into the sky so that it would not rain so much.

    But neither the book nor the film exist simply to horrify modern easy-living cinema-goers; Miguel Delibes, one of the three best and most respected novelists in Spain today, who also participated in writing the script, writes about his native Castilia, the cradle of Spanish civilisation, but always as a rural writer. His novels reflect the kind of people who lived in those small towns and little villages scattered around the high plateaux of the interior of Spain, far from the noisy mobs of tourists; his novels reflect their fears, loves, beliefs, senses of honour and loyalty, and of course the ever-present distrust and envy.

    If, then, you try to watch the film under these precepts, appreciating each scene almost as a little story in itself, as an isolated experience, through which runs loosely a thread which vaguely connects the whole work, you will probably accept the film for what it is: a brilliantly carried out adaptation, beautifully filmed by Teo Escamilla in the province of Palencia. Some of the scenes of houses and streets were a bit out of place as a lot of cement laying and new roofs have been laid since 1956. However, you can see the wide open spaces around such villages as Valdecabañas de Cerrato, to the east of Palencia. José Cáride and Álvaro Monje in the central rôles play convincing parts: the stubborn old father who refuses to abandon his cave, and El Nini who interprets nature and the weather for the villagers, who ably assist them in their lesser parts in the film.

    This is not a film which starts in one place and finishes in another; it is not even a film which goes through a logical series of actions; `Las Ratas' only depicts a series of rural sequences, peopled by peasants: simply a visual poem through which a discerning cinema-goer may just glimpse and capture a little of what mid-fifties life was like in Spain.

    However, I fear that for many people – including modern Spanish audiences who shun their own past, preferring to park it conveniently outside their selective memories – this film may prove to be somewhat inexplicable, incomprehensible. You may also like to see my notes in `La Lengua de las Mariposas' (1999).
    helpful•5
    2
    • khatcher-2
    • Feb 12, 2001

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • October 24, 1997 (Spain)
    • Country of origin
      • Spain
    • Language
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • The Rats
    • Filming locations
      • Valdecañas de Cerrato, Palencia, Castilla y León, Spain
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 37 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo

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