La Caza

La caza (internationally released as The Hunt) is a 1966 Spanish drama directed by Carlos Saura, who wrote the screenplay with Angelino Fons and produced the film with Elías Querejeta. Three middle-aged men, veterans of the Spanish Civil War, spend a hot summer day drinking, reminiscing, and hunting rabbits on land that was once a battleground; the outing ends in a spiral of violence.¹ The film won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 1966 Berlin Film Festival and established Saura's international reputation and that of the nascent New Spanish Cinema.^{2 • 3}

Production and censorship

The film was shot in 35 mm black and white with a panoramic aspect ratio, with an original duration of 93 minutes, under the working title "La caza del conejo" (The Rabbit Hunt).² Filming took place in Seseña, Esquivias, and Aranjuez.⁸ The critic José Enrique Monterde places the story on the lands of the Jarama, which saw the famous battle of the civil war.⁷

Saura described the production as austere: the crew used light reflectors instead of lights, a five-meter dolly, and a battery camera, and he asked cinematographer Luis Cuadrado for black and white that was strong and with personality.¹

The film ran into immediate problems with the censors, who forced Saura to remove direct war references, something he came to believe actually improved the script.³ In his director's statement Saura recalled that many were surprised the film passed censorship at all, and credited the falangist censor who evaluated it, Marcelo Arroita Jáuregui, a cinephile who fully supported La caza.¹

Reception and awards

At the 1966 Berlin International Film Festival the film won the Silver Bear for Best Director; the ICAA record also lists a Cabeza de Palenque at Acapulco and a Golden Gate at San Francisco, both 1966.² In Spain the Medallas del Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos named it Best Film and honored Alfredo Mayo as Best Actor and Luis Cuadrado for cinematography.⁵ The New York Film Festival's 1966 program note, quoting Luis Buñuel, called it "an extraordinary work in every respect, and the only film truly in Buñuel tradition: cruel, tough, relentless," with Buñuel himself saying he had not seen such a completely achieved work of art in a long time.³

Spanish release dates differ between sources: the ICAA catalog records a release date of 15 April 1966,² while the dubbing database eldoblaje lists a Berlin festival premiere on 25 June 1966 and Spanish openings in Barcelona on 9 November 1966 and Madrid on 28 November 1966.⁹ The film sold more than 340,000 tickets in Spain; the ICAA records 341,377 admissions and €56,910.97 in gross,² and one scholarly account places it 536th in a box-office table of Spanish films released between 1965 and 1970, noting that like most New Spanish Cinema titles it did not reach a numerically significant domestic audience.¹⁰

Legacy

The Berlin success marked a turning point. The film scholar Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón's remark, quoted by Sánchez Vidal, that "there is a Spanish cinema before La caza and another after" captures the film's standing in Spanish film history, and La caza began the metaphorical cinema Saura developed with producer Elías Querejeta, a collaboration that lasted until 1981.^{11 • 7} It also started a cycle of Spanish films built on hunting plots, followed by Furtivos, Los santos inocentes, La escopeta nacional, and Tasio.¹¹

Its influence reached abroad. The film was a reference work for directors of the French nouvelle vague and British free cinema, and Sam Peckinpah declared that La caza had really changed his life.¹² For distribution in the United States and Canada, Trans-Lux acquired the rights in December 1966 and settled on the English title The Hunt, after festival showings had used both The Hunt and The Chase.¹⁰

The film has remained in circulation. A 4K restoration by FlixOlé in collaboration with Mercury Films was screened in the Venice Classics section of the 2023 Venice Film Festival.⁵ In Spain it streams on Movistar Plus+ and FlixOlé and can be rented or bought on Amazon Video.⁴ A contemporary reworking, Día de caza, directed by Pedro Aguilera and starring Carmen Machi, Rosi de Palma, Blanca Portillo, and Zoe Arnao, was scheduled for Spanish theaters in July 2026.¹³

References

1. La caza (The Hunt), Venice Classics, La Biennale di Venezia
2. CAZA LA, ICAA Film Catalog (ficha PDF), Ministerio de Cultura
3. NYFF '66: The Hunt, Film at Lincoln Center
4. La caza (1966), JustWatch
5. La caza (película), Mexpedia
6. La caza, Movistar Plus+
7. La caza, Filmoteca de Galicia
8. La Caza, ficha técnica, Filmoteca
9. LA CAZA (1966), eldoblaje.com
10. La Caza: distribución internacional, Universitat de València (Imágenes del cine)
11. Primeras, Universidad de Zaragoza (PENSAR)
12. La caza, Teatro Cánovas, Junta de Andalucía
13. Asiste al preestreno de 'Día de caza', El País

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1966 to 1969

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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