Why you should be excited about Netflix’s award-winning drama ‘La Bola Negra’
Four pages. That is all Federico García Lorca left behind of La bola negra before the play was abandoned: four pages. And yet Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi built a whole film around it, which is now on its way to making and breaking some amazing records. Quite impossible to imagine, but the results will be soon on your Netflix screens.
Now hang on, because this is not some random attempt to finish Lorca’s homework for him. The film moves through 1932, the Spanish Civil War in 1937 and then 2017, using queer lives from different generations to explore what stays a secret and what gets inherited. The past, as the saying goes, has a dirty habit of catching up with you, and La Bola Negra appears to take that idea and run with it.
Just as you are processing all of this, you spot Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close in the conversation around the case and realise that they weren’t joking about it either. True, but don’t get ahead of yourself. They are mere special appearances rather than the central duo, while Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González and Milo Quifes weave the main stories together. So yes, the famous names get your attention, but the younger cast are doing all the work. There is a difference.
And then there is the festival noise that starts. Awards, audience response, Oscar chatter… all of that is there, but chucking it at you now would be putting the cart before the horse. First, we need to get into what this film is actually doing with Lorca and how those three periods connect, while we discuss how those four unfinished pages have turned into one of Netflix’s most curious Spanish releases of the year.
What is La Bola Negra about?
The film moves between 1932, 1937 and 2017. In 1932, Carlos faces rejection from a social club through a black-ball vote tied to his homosexuality, drawing on Lorca’s unfinished play. In 1937, amid the Spanish Civil War, Sebastián forms a bond with Rafael (Miguel Bernardeau), across the political divide.
Then in 2017, Alberto receives a family inheritance that pulls him towards secrets from the past.
The three stories are tied together by what people choose to hide and what gets passed down. The film shows how the past can shape people who were not there to live through it.
What is the Federico García Lorca connection?
Lorca began La bola negra in the early 1930s but never completed it. All that survived were four pages, including a character list and part of a scene involving Carlos. Calvo and Ambrossi co-wrote the film with playwright Alberto Conejero, and Netflix says the screenplay draws from Conejero’s La piedra oscura, Lorca’s La bola negra and other Lorca texts. So no, this is not a straight adaptation, as there was no finished Lorca play to adapt.
Who is in the cast?
Guitarricadelafuente makes his acting debut as Sebastián, Bernardeau plays Rafael, González is Alberto, and Quifes is Carlos. Lola Dueñas plays Teresa, Cruz appears as Nené Romero, and Close plays Isabelle.
Why is there so much buzz around La Bola Negra?
Well, the proof is in the pudding. Calvo and Ambrossi shared Cannes’ Best Director prize as La Bola Negra became the first Netflix film to win TIFF’s People’s Choice Award, then took the San Sebastián Film Festival Audience Award with a 9.4 score, the highest for a Spanish film in the festival’s history. Spain has selected it for the International Feature Oscar race as well.
When will La Bola Negra be released?
The film opens in Spain on October 2nd, while its US and Canadian theatrical rollout starts in New York and Los Angeles on October 16th. Netflix says La Bola Negra lands on the service in the US and Canada on December 2nd.