''The Year of Maria'' () is a 2000 Spanish black comedy film directed by

Karra Elejalde Carlos Elejalde Garay (born 10 October 1960) better known as Karra Elejalde, is a Spanish actor and occasional filmmaker. Biography Carlos Elejalde Garay was born on 10 October 1960 in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He developed his early acting career on i ...

and

Fernando Guillén Cuervo Fernando Guillén Cuervo (born March 11, 1963) is a Spanish actor, film director and scriptwriter. Biography Born on March 11, 1963, in Barcelona in a family of thespians to father Fernando Guillén (actor), Fernando Guillén and mother Gemma ...

, who also star in the film alongside Manuel Manquiña, Gloria Muñoz, and Sílvia Bel.

Plot

Mariano, an alcoholic

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette (format) (or ''cassette tape''), a format that contains magnetic tape for audio, video, and data storage and playback * Compact Cassette, a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ...

salesman, crashes on a marijuana plantation being burned by

Guardia Civil The Civil Guard (; ) is one of the two national law enforcement agencies of Spain. As a national gendarmerie, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the authority of both the Ministry of the Interior and the Minis ...

agents, so dazed and hallucinated by narcotics, he sees the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

. With help from a middling showman (Tony Towers) he becomes a

messianic In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach' ...

figure in rural southern Spain.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Asegarce with the collaboration of TVE, , and ETB. Shooting locations in the

province of Almería Almería (, also ; ) is a province of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It was named after the Arab ruler of Taifa, Banu Al-Miri. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the homony ...

included Cala Carbón (

Níjar Níjar () is a Spanish municipality in the province of Almería, Andalusia. It lies in the eastern part of Almería, in the Sierra de Alhamilla and the south-eastern Mediterranean coast, in the Campo de Níjar, near the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natu ...

Release

Distributed by Aurum, the film was released theatrically in Spain on 11 August 2000. It was the second-largest grossing Spanish film at the 2000 domestic box-office after '' Common Wealth''.

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), ...

'' deemed the film (otherwise stylistically a baby brother to Juanma Bajo Ulloa's ''

Airbag An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate in milliseconds during a collision and then deflate afterwards. It consists of an airbag cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation module, and an impact sensor. ...

''), to be "at worst sloppy and uncontrolled, at best nicely imaginative".

Accolades

, - , align = "center" , 2001 , ,

15th Goya Awards The 15th Goya Awards were presented in Madrid, Spain Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolit ...

, , Best Special Effects , , Juan Ramón Molina, Alfonso Nieto , , , , align = "center" ,

References

Films set in Spain Stoner films 2000s Spanish films 2000s Spanish-language films Spanish black comedy films 2000 black comedy films Films shot in the province of Almería Spanish-language comedy films Religious comedy films {{authority control