The impending death of Franco and re-introduction of democracy produced several works in the Spanish cinema which dealt with characters who exhibited certain kinds of psychological blockages or loss of memory (e.g. Saura's The Garden of Delights). Perhaps the best of these was Gutiérrez Aragón's impressive debut feature, Speak, Silent One. Produced by Elías Querejeta (one of the bulwarks of the New Spanish Cinema), Speak, Silent One is a gentle fable set in the mountainous countryside. During a summer vacation, Don Ramiro (López Vázquez), a book publisher, meets a young shepherdess who is a deaf mute. A man fascinated by the study of language, Ramiro decides to forsake his career in the city to concentrate all his efforts on helping the girl. Slowly, a special bond develops between them, as the girl learns simple words and Ramiro discovers a new way of looking at the world. Often read as an allegory for the isolation of the Spanish intelligensia, Speak, Silent One also features some of cinematographer Luis Cuadrado's finest work. Richard Peña