The price of honor? 20,000 reales and a lifetime of dread.
Spain, 1906: in a small village and pregnant after having been raped, Antonia is forced to marry the brutal Lucas to save her honor. But the mother of the girl pays Lucas 20,000 reales so that the man will never get any closer to Antonia or the child to be born. The man's bad temper will take him to jail and Antonia will try to remake his life with Pedro, Luca's brother. However, despite how far they may go, the couple are distressed at the prospect of Lucas being pardoned and seeking them after leaving prison.
Acting
Concha Velasco's restrained terror; Pedro Armendáriz's volcanic menace.
Direction
Sáenz de Heredia's oppressive framing cages characters in doorways.
Director
José Luis Sáenz de Heredia
Concha Velasco
Antonia
Pedro Armendáriz
Lucas Sánchez Parrondo
Manuel Monroy
Pedro Sánchez Parrondo
Rafaela Aparicio
Pastelera
Ángel del Pozo
Cecilio
María Isbert
Vecina en celebración
Eulalia del Pino
Basilia
Antonio Garisa
Don José
Guadalupe Muñoz Sampedro
Doña Benita
Rafael de Penagos
Carmelo Santamaría
Fernando Sancho
El Maroma
José María Seoane
Juez
Pedro Porcel
Severino
Mercedes Muñoz Sampedro
Madre de Pili
Adriano Domínguez
Sargento Guardia Civil
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the final years of Franco's Spain, the film critiques 'honor' systems the regime still enforced in law—braver than it looks.
Sáenz de Heredia shot this right after 'El verdugo'; both films trap characters in bureaucratic nightmares, but here the horror is intimate and gendered.
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