Galicia, 1976. An already awkward family dinner is being constantly interrupted by calls from an increasingly hysterical neighbour warning of hooded figures emerging from the mist: A Santa Compaña. But what seems at first like a paranoid breakdown soon develops into a ritualistic siege.
Grimmfest says: With John Carpenter’s classic, THE FOG, screening elsewhere in the festival, Victor Català’s atmospheric study of crippling guilt and bloody retribution in 1970s Galicia makes for an interesting comparison. Carpenter’s film focuses on an entire town, whereas the focus here is on a single family. But, ultimately both films are about collective responsibility for past crimes. The crimes here took place during the Spanish Civil war, and the film takes place at a time when Spain was still under the command of General Franco; a time when the grim and bloody realities of the Civil War, and particularly the horrors that took place in Galicia were never discussed; were ruthlessly suppressed, in fact. Thus, at the heart of this film are two generational confrontations, one leading seamlessly into the other. It starts almost as a domestic drama; a droll comedy of manners and social embarrassment, in which a wealthy, well-to-do older couple sit down to an increasingly awkward dinner with their independent-minded daughter and her priggish lawyer boyfriend, who they are meeting for the first time under strained circumstances. But as the differences in values and attitudes surface, and the atmosphere grows ever more tense and uncomfortable, the father finds himself faced with a barrage of increasingly hysterical phone calls from an old friend, warning of some terrible retribution heading their way – the Santa Compania; a kind of Catholic “Wild Hunt”, sent to punish sinners, and to claim the souls of the damned. The film handles the gradually shifting tone from social comedy to supernatural drama masterfully, allowing the viewer to invest emotionally in all four characters, so that the final under duress confession of past crimes is all the more shocking, and the final act of otherworldly implacable vengeance all the more brutal. It’s not necessary for your enjoyment of the film, but we do suggest a quick internet search about Galicia and the Spanish Civil War if you want some wider context. It makes for chilling reading.