Excellent but underrated film

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Dark film with thrilling events , awesome performances , adequate settings and including a spotless as well as shading pictorial cinematography . The flick has some powerful , rousing images and occurs strong and downbeat happenings . This upsetting story of how war creates monsters is set in the harsh post-war years' Catalan countryside , as our hero is Andreu , a little boy (Francesc Colomer) who lives with his parents (Roger Casamajor , Nora Navas)and he then meets the corpses of a man and his son in the woods . The Mayor (Sergi Lopez) and Guardia Civil blame his daddy named Farriol (Roger Casamajor replaced Óscar Jaenada) of the deaths , but Andreu attempts to help him by finding out who actually murdered them . He investigates and finally discovers dark secrets . In this search he betrays his own roots and seeks the terrible truth . Then his father is detained , Andreu gives up hope of seeing him again and he goes home his grandmother , aunts and cousin . This is a thought-provoking flick dealing with astonishing events as well as a passionate retelling and a touching post-warlike drama with some historical insight . "Pa Negre¨ or ¨Pan Negro¨ being finely adapted by the same director Agustí Villaronga from a novel written by Emili Teixidor about a twisted tale of treason , lies , punishment and redemption . This moving as well as strong story is an emotive recounting and an intense drama , including disturbing intrigues , tragedies , deaths and executions . "Black Bread" results to be other of the uncountable stories to deal with dramatic deeds regarding the Civil War background . A familiar theme about the global horrors of a fratricide war , impossible to forget to Spanish Cinema , as the picture gives a deep detail about lives at a village set during post-Civil War and some atrocities being committed by Francoists . It belongs a sub-genre that revolves around the themes of the civil war through the eyes of a child , as there are a great number of pictures about this engaging issues such as ¨Secrets of heart¨ by Montxo Armendariz , ¨Butterfly's Tongue¨by Jose Luis Cuerda , ¨Viaje De Carol¨ by Imanol Uribe and Pan's labyrinth by Guillermo Del Toro . Agusti Villaronga also writes the script and being filmed in his usual formal and stylistic scholarship , without leaving a trace the thoughtful issues , in terms of dramatic and narrative excitement . The main problem has to face "Pan Negro" , beyond not being able to avoid falling into the politic pamphlet is precisely derived from the coldness of its staging , which eventually become monotonous over 108 minutes of footage . This is an enough budget Spanish production and obtained moderate success in the Spaniard box office . The starring boy is well performed by Francesc Colomer , he plays as Andreu who develops a moral consciousness against a world of adults fed by lies and ends up finding out the monster that lives within him . Excellent support cast forming an enjoyable human group of players and giving excellent interpretations such as Roger Casamajor as a Republican father with deep idealism to be made responsible for two strange deaths , Laia Marull as unsettling Pauleta , Eduard Fernández as abusive teacher and Sergi López who plays a similar role to Pan's labyrinth as a cruel fascist . This was first Catalan-language film to win the Goya Award for Best Film and Spain's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012 .Appropriate and evocative musical score by Jose Manuel Pagan . Dark as well atmospheric cinematography by Antonio Riestra who is nowadays working in internationals productions as ¨Mama¨ , ¨Lidice¨ , ¨Czech-Made Man¨ and ¨Last knights¨. Being filmed on location in Olot , Gerona , Puig-Reig, Santa Fe Montseny, Talamanca, Tavertet, Vic , Puig De Balma , L'Espunyola , Manlleu, Mataró , Barcelona , Catalonia, Spain . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Agusti Villaronga . Agusti was born in 1953 in Majorca, Balearic Islands, he uses to make films including genuine chills , suspense , mystery and dark atmospheres . His movies pack excellent creation of taut , thriller , emotions and rare atmospheres such as ¨Aro Tolbukhin¨ , ¨El mar¨ , ¨El Niño de la Luna¨ and especially ¨In a glass cage¨ or ¨Tras el Cristal¨ . His greatest success was this ¨Black bread¨ or Pa Negre¨ winning several Goyas .

Disgusting. This film is guilty of animal cruelty. I am ashamed that it will represent my country in the Oscars. Disgusting. This film is guilty of animal cruelty. I am ashamed that it will represent my country in the Oscars. Disgusting. This film is guilty of animal cruelty. I am ashamed that it will represent my country in the Oscars.Disgusting. This film is guilty of animal cruelty. I am ashamed that it will represent my country in the Oscars.Disgusting. This film is guilty of animal cruelty. I am ashamed that it will represent my country in the Oscars.Disgusting. This film is guilty of animal cruelty. I am ashamed that it will represent my country in the Oscars.Disgusting. This film is guilty of animal cruelty. I am ashamed that it will represent my country in the Oscars.Disgusting. This film is guilty of animal cruelty. I am ashamed that it will represent my country in the Oscars.

Black Bread is an elaborate Catalan Spanish ghost story which begins with a hooded man driving a horse drawn carriage through the woods where he attacks Dionis and his son Culet and kills them by leading the horse off a cliff blind folded. A witness, Andreu, an 11 year old boy goes back to town to report the incident. Farriol, who is the partner of Dionis and also Andreu's father is the lead suspect in the murder, due to his previous opposition to Franco during the war. The mayor was in love with Farriol's wife, Florencia, which creates bad blood until Farriol is forced to leave Spain for France. Andreu's grandmother works for the richest family in the area. Now things become really complicated. Andreu becomes friends with a tb patient from a monastery who runs around believing that he has wings. Florencia convinces the wealthy woman to take in her son Andreu as a sort of step child in order to have a better life with education at a private school. More mysteries unfold concerning an old murder and Black Bread proves to be an interesting drama.

The world of Andreu is shattered, as the story begins, when he comes upon a wreckage where a neighbor and his son were involved. The almost unwatchable beginning marks the young boy forever. This was the Catalonia of the post war. The small town, in an impoverished rural area where a drama that began a few years before the initial tragedy, serves as the setting for this tale about the coming of age of Andreu. Farriol, the father of Andreu, has a lot to be afraid. He wants to flee to France, but ends up at his old mother's house where a lot of widows share the space with the bitterness of their lives. Andreu is sent by his mother, Florencia, to stay with his relatives. It is hard for her to keep working at a small factory and tending her young son without the husband that has gone away.In the new surroundings, Andreu, unravels secrets that are long buried. The defection of his father Farriol weighs heavily on the boy. The atmosphere is oppressive at best. School is not a pleasant place to be either. The only teacher is a man who should not be near children. Andreu discovers his father's role in a horrible act of castration performed on a young man whose only fault was to be a homosexual.The well-to-do family of the Manubens, where one of Andreu's aunts works as a servant, are the key to the well kept secret the whole town knows, but do not dare to speak. Florencia's only alternative is a sacrifice: she will let the rich Manubens take Andreu away so he can be educated. Florencia coming to visit Andreu at the catholic school, is shocked to find a totally changed Andreu as the story ends."Black Bread" was the winner of last year Goya for best film has its merits. Based on a novel by Emili Texidor and adapted for the screen by its director, Agusti Villaronga, it presents the oppressive era of the post civil war era in that part of Spain. The story is complex. Seen through the eyes of the impressionable Andreu, he watches the adult world around him, not being able to absorb the bizarre story behind it. Loving his father, Andreu feels betrayed as he finds out about an ugly episode in which his old man was involved, as well as his mother being sexually abused by a cruel mayor of the town. It is Asuncion who makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to see Andreu get an education, only to be met with his scorn.Young Francesc Colomer is Andreu. We have never seen the actor, so our impression is that his experience is mainly from working in television, not a guarantee to make a good performer in another medium. The best thing in the film is the Asuncion of Nora Navas who gives an excellent performance as the mother of Andreu. Sergi Lopez and Eduard Fernandez have done much better before. They are seen basically in supporting roles.