Caníbal

Spain, France, Romania, Russia

Synopsis

Carlos is the most prestigious tailor in Granada, but he’s also a murderer in the shadows. He feels no remorse, no guilt, until Nina appears in his life. She will make him realize the true nature of his acts and, for the first time, love awakens. Carlos is evil incarnate, unaware of itself. Nina is pure innocence. And Cannibal is a demon’s love story.

Director's Statement


Whenever I begin a new project, I ask myself why I want to work on it. If the answer that I find is too rational and convenient, something that immediately responds to a desire where the fantasy is success, I know that I don’t actually want to make that movie. And yet, when I can’t quite find the right words, when I’m bested by the need to speak about something that I don’t know for sure what it is, I discover the value of that story. Because there is something irrational in film that drives me. I make movies because I like to learn, because I like to feel like a student who doesn’t know anything and who keeps his sense of wonder intact.
This film wants to tell me something beyond what I could ever know. And that pushes me in a powerful way. Alejandro, my co-screenwriter, told me about this novel, “Caribal” by Humberto Arenal. And we felt that we should write this screenplay together, trying to figure out the deep meaning hidden there in order to then turn it into a secret that the spectator can guess at. For us, the essence of film is mystery and the conviction that the viewer can actively participate in it. We construct a story and then we hide it so that it comes out from inside its soul, through the grating.
The fact that cannibalism is a huge taboo makes me think that there is something in its nature that is so close to us that we have decided to ban it. I believe that a ban always hides something and that we should ask ourselves about it, even if it is to reach the conclusion that bans should exist. Jean Genet wrote, “The kiss is the form taken by a primitive urge to bite, even to devour...” I wonder what he meant, what the act of devouring has to do with an act like a kiss.
I wonder what destruction has to do with tenderness. And I realize that this film is about the dialectic between evil and love.
This story takes place on the margins and at an emotional breaking point. I think it is the best way to talk about our times and to question our society. Westerns and film noir teach us that the best and most accurate portrayal of our civilization is to be found on geographic and moral frontiers where we find those characters who are pushed away and excluded, those who shape the true sense of an era and its ethical dilemma.
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Manuel Martín Cuenca

Written by: Antonio Hernández, Manuel Martín Cuenca

Produced by: Manuel Martín Cuenca, Fernando Bovaira, Simón De Santiago, Antonio Hernández

Cinematography: Pau Esteve

Editing: Angel Hdez Zoido

Production Design: Isabel Viñuales

Costume Design: Pedro Moreno

Sound: Eva Valiño, Pelayo Gutierrez, Nacho Royo-Villanova

Cast: Antonio De La Torre, Olimpia Melinte

Nominations and Awards

  • Feature Film Selection 2014