Cría Cuervos (Cria!) (Raise Ravens) poster & wallpaper

Ana Torrent, Florinda Chico, Geraldine Chaplin

A young girl's fears and superstitions haunt her as an adult.

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94% liked it

614 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 47 min.

Directed by: Carlos Saura

Release Date: January 1, 1976

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DVD Release Date: August 21, 2007

Stats: 164 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (164)

  • ebs90
    May 5, 2008
    ebs90
    Astonishing, powerful, quiet classic. As far as I've seen, it might represent the pinnacle of 70s Spanish cinema.



    An adult Ana reminisces about the events of her childhood and their consequences, especifically her mother's death and her turbulent relationship with he...( read more)r father.



    I can say that without a doubt Cria Cuervos is the most realistic depiction of sadness and nostalgia I have ever seen. Ana Torrent as the young Ana brings an emotional credibility to her characters that is without precedent in child performances. She doesn't limit herself to putting on a sad face because her mother died. Ana continues to see (imagine) her mother, and the contrast between the bliss of these illusions/memories of happyday-to-day life with her mother, and the awfully lonely reality that she experiences is literally heartbreaking.



    Geraldine Chaplin plays Ana as an adult and also Ana's mother. I can barely remember a performance or a scene as mortifying as Ana's mother agonizing in bed shortly before her death. Chaplin plays to perfection an unhappy wife, purposefully nonchalant about her husband's infidelities, with an immense need for love. Little Ana remembers her mother's pain and most likely what brought her the disease that killed her, and so she develops a horrible hate for the people who are left alive.



    The best thing about Cria, though, is that Carlos Saura doesn't idealize or soften the real, raw, ugly process of mourn that Ana has to undergo: the things she misses, the things she remembers, the things she clings to, the search for new people to love. Also, after her father dies, Ana and her 2 sisters are left under her aunt's care, and Saura doesn't try to maker her into saint, or a devil. She is only a woman dealing with a sudden responsiblity, and making mistakes, out of nervousness or inexperience, that mark Ana's life forever. That's real life -things happen that you can't predict, or control. But it also goes on, and that's what happens here.



    The cinematography is beautiful, haunting, as is that eternal theme song that is often played throughout. Ana Torrent is even better here than in The Spirit of the Beehive, and Geraldine Chaplin is wonderfully adorable and melancholy. Beware people with a weak stomach or who cry easily. Cria Cuervos is a masterpiece of cinema, the closest portrayal of mourn on film.
  • rubystevens
    March 1, 2008
    rubystevens
    a dark film about childhood starring the wonderful ana torrent as a willful and imaginative girl haunted by the deaths of her parents. en espanol
  • columbiatch
    June 23, 2007
    columbiatch
    The dark cousin of The Spirit of the Beehive. While it has similar themes, allegory, and even the same lead, Cria instead uses the memories and imagination of the protagonist to get into her head and show the past traumas she faced ala Buñuel. Another thing that separates it fr...( read more)om the Spirit of the Beehive is that it's focused more on the uncertain future of Spaniards as Franco is on his deathbed. I think Ana Torrent is even better in this film than The Spirit of the Beehive, there is something that's really fucked up about her character. If there is a flaw to this film, it's that it's sometimes told from the unnecessary perspective of Ana as an adult, which I think detracts slightly from the story. Overall a fascinating and profoundly disturbing film.
  • HuskersNC949597
    October 23, 2009
    HuskersNC949597
    Ana Torrent is downright creepy, but in a good, sympathetic way.
  • rojastortu
    June 4, 2009
    rojastortu
    Really amazing film that introduces itself into the mind of a disturbed child. Ana makes a great performance as the disturbed child, and is always great to see Geraldine Chaplin in these kind of movies. A must see of the Spanish cinema.
  • janicklavoie
    April 1, 2009
    janicklavoie
    Excellent j'ai adoré.
  • divinetrash
    January 25, 2009
    divinetrash
    I know this film achieves so many more wonderful things, but right now I just can't stop thinking about Ana Torrent, without a doubt the best child actress ever. She looks just like a child, with her constantly expressionless face, but if you look just close enough in her eyes yo...( read more)u'll find the torment and confusion her character is always in.
  • maferc27
    December 15, 2008
    maferc27
    el papel de la niña de tesis es increíble! muy "sicológica"...
  • hypathio7
    November 26, 2008
    hypathio7
    nominated for best foreign film by NBR and at the golden globes
  • renatooba
    September 28, 2008
    renatooba
    It's pretty good. Good performances, well made script and an idea that can make actually think about life. It has drama, it has drama, it has mysterious moments, all of then well connected and creating a very well made movie.

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