Visual Evidence and Depiction of Way of Life in the Article "On Land Without Bread"

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Contemporary Spanish Culture and Society through Film
Rather than looking for “exotic” places not known to the spectator, Luis Buñuel’s’ guiding principle was contrary to most of the makers of documentaries or travelogues adopted by Nanook’s (1922) style in terms of shooting the documentary. Instead, Buñuel’s went in search of the Other/Same by constructing and representing Huardanos as Merce Ibarz writes in her article “On Land without Bread.” “The Land without Bread (1932)” is Bunuel’s third film and is one of the most important experiments in documentary cinemas at the start of the sound era in film development. Since its first release, the film has radically been modified by adding a pro-Republican epilogue in both the English and French versions towards the end of 1936 (Ibarz 28). Notably, the film was censored and scenes of marriage rituals in La Alberca were removed although they still exist in some copies. However, the absence of these scenes profoundly alters the film. The experiments situating the “Land without Bread” film, as one of the major texts of film and television history, are main lessons in sound and documentary mise en scene. One of the most striking visual evidence in the film is the use of a goat that acts as a metaphor and the theme of the communication strategy.
The death of a goat reflects the hard life in Las Hurdes as the film “Land without Bread” features a goat that falls from a position where viewers see the smoke from Buñuel’s’ revolver in the middle right-hand...