Click here to visit our new site --> CafeDVD 2.0 Cria Cuervos (Criterion) (1976) Rating: Starring: Geraldine Chaplin, Ana Torrent Director: Carlos Saura Category: Drama, Foreign, Suspense / Thriller Studio: Criterion Subtitles: English Length: 109 mins     Carlos Saura's exquisite Cria Cuervos... heralded a turning point in Spain: Shot while General Franco was on his deathbed, the film melds the personal and the political in a portrait of the legacy of fascism and its effects on a middle-class family (the title derives from the Spanish proverb: "Raise ravens and they'll peck out your eyes"). Ana Torrent (the dark-eyed beauty from The Spirit Of The Beehive) portrays the disturbed eight-year-old Ana, living in Madrid with her two sisters and mourning the death of her mother, whom she conjures as a ghost (played by an ethereal Geraldine Chaplin). Seamlessly shifting between fantasy and reality, the film subtly evokes both the complex feelings of childhood and the struggles of a nation emerging from the shadows.