Costa Premiere of 'El Pueblo' Film

An event organised this month by the Costa Press Club and hosted by Mijas Town Hall in La Cala de Mijas was highlighted by the first public showing on the Costa del Sol of a ‘lost’ 1981 film. Entitled ‘El Pueblo’, the film was rescued from celluloid archives by Antonio Javier González, a social and cultural researcher at the University of Cadiz. It was commissioned by the New Zealand government for use in junior schools, to show pupils how people lived in other countries, and until recently it had not been seen in Spain – even by the villagers in Villaluenga del Rosario who featured in it.

‘El Pueblo’ shows scenes of daily life in a rural area of Andalucía untouched by tourism, at a time of great political change in Spain. One of the scenes shows villagers casting their votes in a referendum to approve Andalucía’s first ‘Statutes’ as an autonomous region, while another shows them filling containers with water from the village fountain.

After showing ‘El Pueblo’, which was made by an Australian film production company, González discussed the original making of it, and the research which brought it to light again, with Neil Hesketh, vice president of the Costa Press Club. He also gave some fascinating insights into the effect of bringing one of the original film directors back to the village in 2019, to show it for the first time to the villagers of today.

CPC members and their guests then adjourned to the nearby Johnny’s Bar & Grill, where discussion of the film and of how Spain has changed in the past 40 years continued over dinner.

The film can be viewed on YouTube.

Photos

5 photos — scroll or use arrows