''Yerma'' is a 1998 Spanish drama film directed and written by Pilar Távora which stars

Aitana Sánchez-Gijón Aitana Sánchez-Gijón de Angelis (born 5 November 1968) is a Spanish-Italian film actress. Biography She was born in Rome on 5 November 1968, to a Spanish father , a history lecturer exiled from Francoism, and an Italian mother, Fiorella d ...

, alongside

Juan Diego Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, also known as Juan Diego (; 1474–1548), was a Chichimec peasant and Marian visionary. He is said to have been granted apparitions of the Virgin Mary on four occasions in December 1531: three at the hill of Tepeyac a ...

and

Irene Papas Irene Papas or Irene Pappas ( el, Ειρήνη Παππά, Eiríni Pappá, ; born Eirini Lelekou ( el, Ειρήνη Λελέκου, Eiríni Lelékou, link=no); 3 September 1929 – 14 September 2022) was a Greek actress and singer who starred ...

. It is an adaptation of the play of the same name by

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

Plot

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

set in rural

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

, the plot follows the plight of a childless woman obsessed with the prospect of having offspring, torn between hopefulness and desperation.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Artimagen Producciones with the collaboration of

Canal Sur Televisión Canal Sur ('South Channel') is part of Radio y Televisión de Andalucía (RTVA), the public broadcasting company of Andalusia. It was created by means of the devolved powers given to this region by an Act of Parliament in its statute of auton ...

and TVE. It was fully shot in

, in the provinces of

Huelva Huelva (, ) is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is between two short rias though has an outlying spur including nature reserve on the Gulf of Cádiz coast. The rias ...

and

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

Release

The film screened at the 1998 San Sebastián Film Festival as well as in Puerto Rico and Chicago. It was domestically distributed by Columbia Tri-Star Films de España S.A. Despite the regional support from the Andalusian regional administration, the film did not fare well at the box office, grossing around 44 million ₧ (80,000 admissions) against a 250 million ₧ budget.

References

Bibliography