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Bad Education

1029 votes

When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school.

Status: Released

Released Date: 2004-03-19

Runtime: 105 mins

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Spoken language: Latin, Español

Genres: Drama, Crime

Original title: Bad Education

Production Companies: El Deseo

Production Countries: Spain

Cast

Ángel / Juan / Zahara

Gael García Bernal

Fele Martínez

Daniel Giménez Cacho

Lluís Homar

Francisco Maestre

Francisco Boira

Juan Fernández

Nacho Pérez

Raúl García Forneiro

Javier Cámara

Alberto Ferreiro

Petra Martínez

Sandra

Roberto Hoyas

Reviews

Geronimo1967

This film treads the fine line between providing an entertaining and sexy piece of cinema with the identification of the serious issues of sexual abuse committed if not always by the clergy, then certainly under their auspices, in Franco's Spain. The story centres around aspiring actor "Angel" (Gael Garciá Bernal) who turns up, unannounced, at the door of his former schoolfriend. This man "Enrique" (Fele Martinez) has gone on to become a successful film director and, perhaps optimistically, "Angel" hopes that the unfinished manuscript he has brought might turn out to be his ticket to success. It transpires that these men have not seen each other since school (some 16 years earlier) and that this document is semi-autobiographical - it takes both back to their childhood where, under the supervision of "Fr. Manolo" (Daniel Giménez Cacho) they attended a catholic school where they had sexual encounters with each other and with others with varying degrees willingness. The story is dark, certainly, but here is plenty of humour and shagging as the story unfolds. We are deliberately left to judge the extent to which "Angel" is being truthful, fanciful or just plain enthusiastic, and we are also offered a fairly unique take on how vengeance might be applied. The narrative is complex, the timelines and characters shift making it quite a thought provoking film to both watch and begin to understand. Well worth it, though!

2023-09-04

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