Fernando Trueba was honored with the AGIS Award at the 1980 Venice Film Festival for this bracing comedy of manners and social observation that perhaps more than any other film established the new “Madrid Comedy.” Recently divorced, Matias (played by co-screenwriter Oscar Ladoire) meet-cutes his cousin, the charming 25-year old Violeta (Paula Molina). He’s writing a thriller; she’s a vegetarian. Through a series of feints, gaffes, and perpetual misunderstandings, these two seeming opposites increasingly fall into each other’s orbits, charting a blossoming romance as well as a Spain rapidly moving away from the dark years of Franco. A fundamental work of the New Spanish Cinema.

In Spanish with English subtitles

Official Selection: Chicago International Film Festival