{ "id": "epe8b842a3", "slug": "the-holy-innocents", "title": "The Holy Innocents", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.non-english-literature-adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of non-English-language literature", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.non-english-literature-adaptations" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Holy Innocents (Los santos inocentes), Mario Camus's 1984 Spanish drama adapted from Miguel Delibes's 1981 novel, depicts an Extremadura peasant family under a feudal landowner; Landa and Rabal shared Cannes 1984 Best Actor.", "snippet": "The Holy Innocents (Los santos inocentes), Mario Camus's 1984 Spanish drama adapted from Miguel Delibes's 1981 novel, depicts an Extremadura peasant family under a feudal landowner; Landa and Rabal shared Cannes 1984 Best Actor.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.non-english-literature-adaptations", "markdown": "# The Holy Innocents\n\n**The Holy Innocents** (Spanish: *Los santos inocentes*) is a 1984 Spanish drama film directed by Mario Camus, adapted from [Miguel Delibes](https://www.edgepedia.org/miguel-delibes)'s 1981 novel of the same name. It follows a family of landless peasants on a large estate (cortijo) in [Extremadura](https://www.edgepedia.org/extremadura) in the 1960s, whose lives of obedience and humiliation under the landowning class end in a single act of violence.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/los-santos-inocentes/) The film premiered in competition at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where Alfredo Landa and Francisco Rabal shared the Award for Best Actor, and it is regularly ranked among the most important Spanish films of its period.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/1984/awards/) • [3](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Source | Adaptation of Miguel Delibes's novel *Los santos inocentes* (Planeta, 1981), itself divided into six books[4](https://fundacionmigueldelibes.es/obras/los-santos-inocentes/) |\n| Direction and script | Directed by Mario Camus; screenplay by Antonio Larreta, Manuel Matji, and Camus[5](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/alece/registro_pelicula/?id=1632) |\n| Spanish release | 4 April 1984; 107 minutes; 35 mm Eastmancolor[6](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=29483) |\n| Spanish box office | 2,033,935 admissions and €3,151,287.06 gross[6](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=29483) |\n| Cannes 1984 | Best Actor shared ex aequo by Alfredo Landa and Francisco Rabal; Special Mention of the International Jury[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/1984/awards/) • [7](https://www.espinof.com/criticas/santos-inocentes-alfredo-landa-paco-rabal-sobresalen-imprescindible-adaptacion-mario-camus) |\n| Other awards | Cinema Writers Circle (CEC) Best Film, Spain 1985; ACE Award Best Actor (Landa)[8](https://cultura.cervantes.es/saopaulo/es/los-santos-inocentes/134417) |\n| Principal cast | Alfredo Landa (Paco), Francisco Rabal (Azarías), Terele Pávez (Régula), Juan Diego (señorito Iván), Agustín González (don Pedro)[7](https://www.espinof.com/criticas/santos-inocentes-alfredo-landa-paco-rabal-sobresalen-imprescindible-adaptacion-mario-camus) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and setting\n\nThe film is set on a cortijo, a large landed estate in Extremadura, during the 1960s under the Franco regime. Paco, known as Paco el Bajo (\"Paco the Short\"), his wife Régula, and their children Quirce, Nieves, and la Niña Chica, a disabled daughter, move from a remote shack to a small house near the masters' country residence. Azarías, Régula's brother, a man with an intellectual disability who is devoted to birds, joins them after being expelled from a nearby farm.[9](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/los-santos-inocentes.htm)\n\nThe family's life is one of renunciation, sacrifice, and obedience to the landowner, who rules through control of resources. The Cannes synopsis describes characters whose fate has been fixed for generations and for whom only something violent and entirely new can break the routine to which they are condemned.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/los-santos-inocentes/) The film's most hated figure is the señorito Iván, played by [Juan Diego](https://www.edgepedia.org/juan-diego), who treats the servants with the contempt of a feudal lord. He kills Azarías's beloved pet kite, the \"milana bonita\", after a bad day of hunting, and Azarías later hangs him from a tree. Contemporary accounts report that audiences applauded at that scene, in Spain and in other countries where the film opened.[10](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/04/14/el-villano-mas-odiado-del-cine-espanol-y-la-escena-que-hizo-estallar-al-publico-nunca-se-habia-visto-algo-igual-cadena-ser/)\n\nThe title alludes to the [Massacre of the Innocents](https://www.edgepedia.org/massacre-of-the-innocents) recounted in the [Gospel of Matthew](https://www.edgepedia.org/gospel-of-matthew), connecting the suffering of Herod's child victims with characters who, lacking education and power, are denied the chance to know or grow.[11](https://burjcdigital.urjc.es/bitstreams/609ccf17-6ee3-0c23-e053-6f19a8c0ba23/download) The \"innocents\" of the title are chiefly Azarías and la Niña Chica, both with intellectual disabilities, though the rest of the family is also read as innocent in its submission.[12](https://lamadraza.ugr.es/los-santos-inocentes/)\n\n## From novel to screenplay\n\nDelibes published the definitive version of *Los santos inocentes* in September 1981; its third book had appeared as the story \"La milana\" in 1963.[13](https://www.isliada.org/libros/los-santos-inocentes/) The novelist, who had trained as a draughtsman and reproduced rural Castilian speech with close fidelity in his fiction, saw many of his works adapted, but Camus's film became the best known of them.[9](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/los-santos-inocentes.htm)\n\nThe screenplay was signed by Antonio Larreta, Manuel Matji, and Mario Camus. A copy of that script, with handwritten annotations by Delibes, is preserved in the archive of the Miguel Delibes Foundation in [Valladolid](https://www.edgepedia.org/valladolid); the scholar José Manuel González Herrán has shown that the differences between the preserved script and the finished film reflect corrections, proposals, and suggestions by Delibes himself.[14](https://publicaciones.sociedadmenendezpelayo.es/BBMP/article/view/928) Camus recalled that Delibes was surprised anyone wanted to adapt the novel, believing it very difficult, and that the writer supplied the key: he had met the real Azarías in a psychiatric hospital. From that detail the filmmakers built the flashback structure that opens the action outside its chronological moment.[15](https://sevilla.abc.es/20100312/cultura-literatura/mario-camus-clave-para-201003121122.html) Delibes visited the shoot for one day in Alburquerque (Badajoz) and approved the adaptation.[15](https://sevilla.abc.es/20100312/cultura-literatura/mario-camus-clave-para-201003121122.html)\n\nThe adaptation keeps the novel's structure of fragments organized around key characters, while compressing material: the marquess's visit, spread through the novel, appears almost in a single segment, and chapters are retitled with characters' names. Some scenes are repositioned, and the children's stories, Quirce as a soldier and Nieves as a factory worker who prefers wage labor to a life of servitude, are given more visible space.[16](https://uvadoc.uva.es/bitstream/handle/10324/3560/TFM-F-45.pdf?sequence=1)\n\n## Production and reception in Spain\n\nThe film was produced by Ganesh Producciones Cinematográficas in collaboration with Televisión Española, with Julián Mateos as producer, cinematography by Hans Burmann, music by Antón García Abril, and editing by José María Biurrun. It was shot in 35 mm Eastmancolor in a panoramic ratio and distributed in Spain by Universal Pictures International Spain.[5](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/alece/registro_pelicula/?id=1632) • [6](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=29483) The Spanish board classified it as not recommended for audiences under 13.[6](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=29483)\n\nIt was, at the time, the highest-grossing Spanish film, drawing 2,033,935 spectators in Spain.[11](https://burjcdigital.urjc.es/bitstreams/609ccf17-6ee3-0c23-e053-6f19a8c0ba23/download) The critic of *El País*, reviewing the premiere in April 1984, called it one of the most beautiful and important films of recent times and praised the entire cast, Hans Burmann's cinematography, Rafael Palmero's locations, and García Abril's music.[17](https://elpais.com/diario/1984/04/27/cultura/451864807_850215.html) In a 2025 *El País* critics' poll of the best Spanish films of the last half century it placed fourth, with the note that Landa and Rabal's Cannes acting prize might have been shared with Terele Pávez, Juan Diego, and even the milana bonita.[3](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html) On IMDb it holds a rating of 8.1/10 from about 5,400 users.[18](https://www.imdb.com/es-es/title/tt0088040/ratings/)\n\n## Cannes and the film's standing\n\nAt the 1984 Cannes festival, where the film competed against titles including [Wim Wenders](https://www.edgepedia.org/wim-wenders)'s *Paris, Texas*, Landa and Rabal received the Award for Best Actor ex aequo, and the film received a Special Mention of the International Jury.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/1984/awards/) • [7](https://www.espinof.com/criticas/santos-inocentes-alfredo-landa-paco-rabal-sobresalen-imprescindible-adaptacion-mario-camus) The film also won the Cinema Writers Circle Award for Best Film in Spain in 1985 and the ACE Award for Best Actor for Landa.[8](https://cultura.cervantes.es/saopaulo/es/los-santos-inocentes/134417)\n\nThe Instituto Cervantes places the film among the outstanding examples of 1980s Spanish film policy, which encouraged adaptations of literary works to foreground the themes of Spanish culture; it belongs to the same current as Camus's *La colmena* (1982), from [Camilo José Cela](https://www.edgepedia.org/camilo-jose-cela), and his later *La casa de Bernarda Alba* (1987), from Lorca.[8](https://cultura.cervantes.es/saopaulo/es/los-santos-inocentes/134417) • [19](https://elpais.com/icon/2026-03-11/insulto-o-adaptacion-por-que-las-peliculas-se-siguen-llevando-tan-mal-con-las-novelas.html) Commentators continue to read it as a portrait of a rural, inherited, and harsh Spain that is not as distant in time as it may seem, and its depiction of caciquismo, local bosses ruling through land and dependency, has been compared with present-day inequalities.[8](https://cultura.cervantes.es/saopaulo/es/los-santos-inocentes/134417) • [7](https://www.espinof.com/criticas/santos-inocentes-alfredo-landa-paco-rabal-sobresalen-imprescindible-adaptacion-mario-camus)\n\n## References\n\n1. [LOS SANTOS INOCENTES, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/los-santos-inocentes/)\n2. [Retrospective 1984 Awards, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/1984/awards/)\n3. [Las 50 mejores películas españolas del último medio siglo, El País (2025)](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html)\n4. [Los santos inocentes, Fundación Miguel Delibes](https://fundacionmigueldelibes.es/obras/los-santos-inocentes/)\n5. [Los santos inocentes, film record, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/alece/registro_pelicula/?id=1632)\n6. [SANTOS INOCENTES, LOS, ICAA Film Database](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=29483)\n7. [Los Santos Inocentes (1984), crítica, EspinOf](https://www.espinof.com/criticas/santos-inocentes-alfredo-landa-paco-rabal-sobresalen-imprescindible-adaptacion-mario-camus)\n8. [Los santos inocentes, Instituto Cervantes São Paulo](https://cultura.cervantes.es/saopaulo/es/los-santos-inocentes/134417)\n9. [Los santos inocentes (1984), Hoja de sala, Centro Virtual Cervantes](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/los-santos-inocentes.htm)\n10. [El villano más odiado del cine español, Cadena SER (2026)](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/04/14/el-villano-mas-odiado-del-cine-espanol-y-la-escena-que-hizo-estallar-al-publico-nunca-se-habia-visto-algo-igual-cadena-ser/)\n11. [Los Santos Inocentes, análisis de oficios cinematográficos, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos](https://burjcdigital.urjc.es/bitstreams/609ccf17-6ee3-0c23-e053-6f19a8c0ba23/download)\n12. [LOS SANTOS INOCENTES, La Madraza, Universidad de Granada](https://lamadraza.ugr.es/los-santos-inocentes/)\n13. [Los santos inocentes de Miguel Delibes: una obra que revela la injusticia social, Isliada](https://www.isliada.org/libros/los-santos-inocentes/)\n14. [González Herrán, José Manuel (2023). Miguel Delibes y el guion de la película Los santos inocentes (1984), Boletín de la Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo](https://publicaciones.sociedadmenendezpelayo.es/BBMP/article/view/928)\n15. [Mario Camus: «Nos dio la clave para adaptar Los santos inocentes», ABC (2010)](https://sevilla.abc.es/20100312/cultura-literatura/mario-camus-clave-para-201003121122.html)\n16. [Adaptación cinematográfica de Los santos inocentes, TFM, Universidad de Valladolid](https://uvadoc.uva.es/bitstream/handle/10324/3560/TFM-F-45.pdf?sequence=1)\n17. [Hermosos pájaros sin vuelo, El País (27 April 1984)](https://elpais.com/diario/1984/04/27/cultura/451864807_850215.html)\n18. [Los santos inocentes, IMDb ratings](https://www.imdb.com/es-es/title/tt0088040/ratings/)\n19. [¿Insulto o adaptación?, El País (2026)](https://elpais.com/icon/2026-03-11/insulto-o-adaptacion-por-que-las-peliculas-se-siguen-llevando-tan-mal-con-las-novelas.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Adaptations of non-English-language literature*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-holy-innocents", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-holy-innocents.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Holy Innocents\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-holy-innocents. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Holy Innocents](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-holy-innocents)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-holy-innocents](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-holy-innocents). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Holy Innocents\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-holy-innocents. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Holy Innocents, Mario Camus's 1984 Spanish drama adapted from Miguel Delibes's 1981 novel, depicts an Extremadura peasant family under a feudal landowner; Landa and Rabal shared Cannes 1984 Best Actor." }