Initially banned, Poachers became the most successful film in Spanish history and a favorite of Luis Buñuel. In America it has been little shown, though critics acclaimed it (“a wonderfully intelligent film about folly and paradox” - Penelope Gilliatt, The New Yorker). Franco once described Spain as “a peaceful forest,” but its calm surface concealed deadly conflicts and injustices. Borau's film explores, with black humor, the poachers and the prey within that “peaceful forest.” The principal characters include: a young poacher living incestuously with his witch-like mother; a pompous, bungling Governor who comes to visit for his special bowl of soup; and a runaway girl from the local Segovian reform school who displaces Mama from her son's bed.