Feature film
Los Olvidados
Los olvidados
Luis Buñuel · 1950
Synopsis
In a wretched outskirt of Mexico City, El Jaibo, a teenager who has escaped from a reformatory, rejoins the band of local boys. With them, he turns on don Carmelo, a blind man who plays music in the street, and seeks revenge on Julián, the boy he holds responsible for his confinement. Pedro, his junior, finds himself bound to him. Ojitos, an abandoned child, becomes the blind man's guide.
Context
Produced by Óscar Dancigers and Jaime Menasce for Ultramar Films, written by Buñuel and Luis Alcoriza, and photographed by Gabriel Figueroa, the film brings together Alfonso Mejía (Pedro), Roberto Cobo (El Jaibo), Estela Inda and Miguel Inclán. To prepare it, Buñuel interviewed children, police officers and the staff of reformatories. Released in Mexico City in 1950, it was savaged by the press and shocked the public, who found it too harsh. Its original negative, kept by the film archive of the national university, is inscribed by UNESCO in the Memory of the World register.
Who it is for
Under an hour and a half, in black and white and in Spanish; a dream sequence brings surrealism into this story of misery.
Prizes and reception
Best Director prize at Cannes in 1951 and a haul of Ariel awards, including those for best film and best direction; second among the hundred best Mexican films.
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