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“Raise ravens and they’ll pluck out your eyes,” goes the proverb.

This allegorical drama unfolds in a sprawling Madrid household during the dying days of General Franco’s regime in summer 1975.

Deftly moving between past, present and future – and from “real” to imagined – writer-director Carlos Saura focuses on orphaned eight-year-old Ana (The Spirit Of The Beehive’s Ana Torrent), filled with memories of her late beloved mother (Geraldine Chaplin).

A richly shot, impressively acted film containing a powerful, bleak vision of both childhood and a repressive adult world.