In “Butterfly,’ Civil War Intrudes on Spanish Village

“Butterfly” takes us back in time to a picturesque Spanish village in Galicia where life seems idyllic. People have their differences and their inevitable losses and disappointments, yet harmony reigns, and in the town’s daily routines you sense life going through its eternal cycles.

The town’s dominant personality is one of its teachers, Don Gregorio (Fernando Fernan Gomez), a tall, commanding man of much warmth and wisdom who is nearing retirement.

Moncho (Manuel Lozano), the tailor’s son, has been prevented from starting school until his asthma attacks can be brought under control. He arrives at school for his first day filled with terror because he knows full well that his older brother Andres (Alexis de los Santos) regularly comes home beaten by his teacher for no good reason.

Moncho’s mother, Rosa (Uxia Blanco), unwittingly has gotten her younger son off to a bad start when she is overheard by the other schoolboys describing him to Don Gregorio as “like a sparrow leaving its nest.”

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Immediately, dubbed “Sparrow” by his new classmates, Moncho runs away. The delicacy, shrewdness and kind humor with which Don Gregorio resolves this situation, getting Moncho back in class and accepted by the other boys, is impressive. In short order Don Gregorio assumes a grandfatherly role in Moncho’s life, introducing him to the joys and wonders of nature, eager to show him that even butterflies have tongues.

In the meantime director Jose Luis Cuerda also tells us of Andres’ aspirations as a saxophonist. He joins a local dance band and experiences his first onrush of romantic feelings for a young woman. There’s also a comical subplot involving Carmina (Elena Fernandez), the community’s good-time girl, whose unusual turn-on is to bite her men as they make love to her.

Cuerda gets us so caught up in the lives of the townspeople that we tend to forget that the time is the mid-1930s, at the tail end of Spain’s five-year experience as a republic, which is about to be overthrown in the brutal civil war that brought General Franco to power for the next four decades. Many citizens freely declare their support of the republic that has brought unprecedented freedom and liberty, but you just know that there are dark forces lying low in the community, including the church, waiting for the opportunity to bring Spain under right-wing military rule.

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An enlightened man who does not subscribe to the traditional hellfire-and-damnation views of the local priest, Don Gregorio, at the time of his retirement ceremonies, declares courageously: “If we allow just one generation to grow up in freedom, they will never allow liberty to be taken from us.”

We know that the Spanish Civil War will at last arrive here, but we are not prepared for how chillingly and how convincingly ordinary people can be consumed and transformed monstrously by fear.

Drawing from Rafael Azcona’s deft adaptation of three stories from a prize-winning 1997 collection by Manuel Rivas, Cuerda does not judge the townspeople but takes the tragic view of events that a broad perspective allows.

“Butterfly” is a beautiful, harrowing film of understated power and perception that affords Fernando Fernan Gomez, the Spanish cinema’s great, weathered veteran, yet another of his unforgettable performances. He was last seen in the 1998 Academy Award-nominated “The Grandfather,” which won him a Goya, Spain’s Oscar.

* MPAA rating: R, for a sex scene. Times guidelines: mature themes, one fairly explicit sex scene.

‘Butterfly’

Fernando Fernan Gomez: Don Gregorio

Manuel Lozano: Moncho

Uxia Blanco: Rosa, the mother

Gonzalo Uriarte: Ramon, the father

Alexis de los Santos: Andres, the older brother

A Miramax Films release of a Sogetel production and “Las Producciones del Escorpion” Voice Group with the collaboration of Canal Plus and the participation of T.V.E. director Jose Luis Cuerda. Executive producers Fernando Bovaira, Jose Luis Cuerda. Screenplay by Rafael Azcona: based on the stories “La Lengua de las Mariposas,” “Carmina” and “Un Saxo en la Niebla” from Manuel Rivas’ “Que Me Quieres, Amor.” Cinematographer Javier Salmones. Editor Nacho Ruiz Capillas. Music Alejandro Amenabar. Costumes Sonia Grande. Art director Josep Rosell. Set decorator Balter Gallart. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

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