Initially banned (ostensibly for reasons of excessive eroticism), Poachers subsequently became the most successful film in Spanish history. A favorite of Luis Buñuel, it has been little shown in America, although critics acclaimed it.
Franco once described Spain as a “peaceful forest,” but its calm surface concealed deadly conflicts and injustices. Jose Luis 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 reform school who displaces Mama from her son's bed.