''Desire'' ( es, Deseo, links=no), also known as ''Beyond Desire'', is a 2002 Spanish romantic drama film directed by

Gerardo Vera Gerardo Vera Perales (10 March 194720 September 2020) was a Spanish costume and set designer, opera director, actor, and film and theatre director. Life Vera was born in Miraflores de la Sierra on 10 March 1947. He studied English language a ...

from a screenplay by Ángeles Caso which stars

Leonor Watling Leonor Elizabeth Ceballos Watling (born 28 July 1975) is a Spanish film actress and singer. Early life Leonor Ceballos Watling was born on 28 July 1975 in Madrid, to a Spanish father from Province of Cádiz, Cádiz and an English mother, the ...

and

Leonardo Sbaraglia Leonardo Máximo Sbaraglia (; born 30 June 1970) is an Argentine actor, with extensive credits in both Argentina and Spain. He has also worked in Mexico, and was cast in his first English-language role in '' Red Lights''. Biography Sbaraglia was ...

Plot

Set in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in 1945, during the

Francoist dictatorship Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

, the plot follows the impossible romance between Elvira and Pablo. Elvira is a humble woman with allegiances to those vanquished in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

(her father shot dead by the fascists and her husband Julio imprisoned) living with her sister Raquel and her mother. Pablo is an Argentine businessman of German descent and

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

allegiances who is helping Nazis to flee to Argentina.

Cast

Production

The screenplay was penned by novel screenwriter Ángeles Caso. A Lolafilms (

Andrés Vicente Gómez Andrés Vicente Gómez (Madrid, 16 September 1943) is a Spanish film producer, head of Lolafilms, with more than 100 films to his credit. Career Gómez is the winner of an Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Language film for ''Belle Époque'' ...

) production, the film also had the participation of

Antena 3 TV Antena 3 is a Spanish terrestrial television channel part of Atresmedia Televisión, of which it is the flagship station. Its current headquarters are located in San Sebastián de los Reyes. Some of the most popular programmes broadcast by Ante ...

and . The score was authored by

Stephen Warbeck Stephen Warbeck (born 21 October 1953) is an English composer, best known for his film and television scores. Warbeck was born in Southampton, Hampshire. He first became known for the music for ''Prime Suspect'' and won an Oscar for his score fo ...

, whereas

Javier Aguirresarobe Javier Aguirresarobe Zubía (born 10 October 1948) is a Spanish cinematographer.- Life and career Aguirresarobe was born in Eibar, Guipúzcoa, Basque Country, Spain. He has worked with Spanish directors such as Imanol Uribe, Montxo Armendári ...

worked as cinematographer. The bulk of the footage was shot in

, with some scenes filmed in Galicia.

Release

Distributed by Lolafilms Distribución, the film was theatrically released in Spain on 25 October 2002.

Reception

Jonathan Holland of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' considered that the "good-looking political romancer" features a "solid script", which "sidesteps the obvious pitfalls, and the luminous screen presence of Leonor Watling suffuses the whole with warmth and tenderness".

Ángel Fernández-Santos Ángel Fernández-Santos (1934–2004) was a Spanish film critic and screenwriter. Born in Los Cerralbos, province of Toledo, in 1934, he was the younger brother of Marxist philosopher . He studied for a brief spell at the in the early 1960s. As ...

of ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'' considered that despite a good start and a compelling exterior sketch of the characters, the two leads and their romance end up losing steam, "bound by the corset of two inert, empty, dead characters".

References