By Judi Jordan | LATIN HEAT

Unless you’ve been vacationing on a desert island since May, you couldn’t have missed the roar of acclaim surrounding La Bola Negra. A 20-minute standing ovation at Cannes? Seriously? Cannes is a tough crowd. 

The film subsequently shared Cannes’ Best Director award and crossed the Atlantic to win Toronto’s coveted People’s Choice Award, a recognized gateway to Oscar recognition.

I was curious. Very.

Then came the Netflix screening invitation. I watched. Astonished. Moved. I got it.

A tour de force. 1000% Spanish. The rhythm, the colors, the old soul of this extraordinary land. Both real and surreal, La Bola Negra takes the most basic of places and renders them magical. It shocks. Charms. Intrigues. Stuns. Hurts. Angers. Astounds.

And satisfies.

The icing on the torta is the mysterious true-life thread of Spain’s martyred literary giant Federico Garcia Lorca, a ‘detail’ delicately revealed like Lorca’s phrases, never overplayed.

The Q&A was another revelation.

Two helmers are better than one.

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, collectively known as Los Javis, have created a visually sumptuous, emotionally fearless epic for approximately €15 million. It looks and feels three times the budget.

These are calculated risk-takers committed to authenticity, including casting gay actors to portray gay men. To the observant film aficionado, the comfort between the actors feels natural, not stilted or novel. They wrote a leading role specifically for alternative pop star Guitarricadelafuente, hoping he would accept.

He did.

Playing Sebastián, the singer makes an arresting screen debut opposite Miguel Bernardeau, star of Zorro, whose Rafael is a noble athlete, now soldier—and prisoner. Their romantic connection, wounded souls, beautifully understated, becomes the beating heart of this extraordinary story.

Penélope Cruz delivers her own delicious moments, while Glenn Close contributes another intriguing dimension to a film rich with surprises.

The resulting collaboration between the Javis is especially interesting thanks to their contrasting creative temperaments. It makes for a great Q&A, a character study.

Calvo, the thoughtful, understated, disciplined planner, and Ambrossi, the playful, emotionally instinctive adventurer, are two chefs cooking a feast. They have the ingredients; together they balance tenacity, taste, timing, fluidity and surprise. Waiting for snow or actors it’s paid off.

Ambrossi calls their directing process “catharsis.” Very big on running a happy set, and not ‘dictating’ has rendered astounding results. 

They remain flexible, embracing an actor’s emotional state rather than rigidly adhering to a predetermined schedule. When Guitarricadelafuente first arrived to set, late from a delayed flight, visibly anxious, the directors pivoted, adapting to his emotional state as an opportunity: abandoning a quiet scene for the explosive opening sequence of wartime violence.

Catharsis totalmente.

Cinematographer Gris Jordana’s painterly compositions breathe art into the film’s violence and beauty. Using paintings to shape the heart-stopping visual canvas, the film moves fluidly among Spain’s turbulent early 20th century, the Spanish Civil War and modern life, binding the scars of history on subsequent generations.

The male gaze is unapologetically bold. Los Javis refuse to retreat from the bodies, souls, desire, courage and suffering of men—gay and heterosexual—or from the terrible cost of suspicion, repression and lives lived in shadows.

This is not a movie to watch on a small screen. The lyrical, unflinching cinematography, stunning production design and intimate performances transport us into those shadows.

We become voyeurs. And conspirators.

Netflix wisely gave La Bola Negra a 46-day exclusive theatrical run—the longest in the streamer’s history. Opening in U.S. cinemas October 16, La Bola Negra only hits the streaming platform on December 2. This is a film to be savored, experienced, discussed, pondered. Not merely viewed.

On its first U.S. premiere weekend, La Bola Negra debuted to $277.5k on four screens 2 in LA and 2 in NYC– numbers direct from Netflix Sunday in the first ever official box office grosses shared. It goes wider on 11/6. 

At home in Spain, La Bola Negra has become a must-see for Spaniards of all adult generations. It’s much more than a “gay” film. It’s a look in the rearview mirror—at what we all may have missed.

The ultimate genius of La Bola Negra: beneath its visual extravagance, sensual courage and historical ambition lies a painfully universal truth.

It’s about everything we lose when we deny ourselves the freedom to love—regardless of gender.

The post Catharsis and Crazy Genius: Spain’s Los Javis and the Triumph of ‘La Bola Negra’ first appeared on .