Manolo Sanlucar

A look at the history and traditions of flamenco music and dance.

Teresa hopes that her social climbing ambitions will be fulfilled by her young son, Jacy. When he learns that his mother has started an affair, Jacy leaves home and embarks on a series of short-term liaisons with several women. He ends up by marrying a retarded but incredibly rich woman. His mother's hopes have finally been realised. Meanwhile, Teresa has herself found love and happiness, with a schoolteacher.

The film presents thirteen rhythms of flamenco, each with song, guitar, and dance: the up-tempo bularías, a brooding farruca, an anguished martinete, and a satiric fandango de huelva. There are tangos, a taranta, alegrías, siguiriyas, soleás, a guajira of patrician women, a petenera about a sentence to death, villancicos, and a final rumba.

Filmed like a documentary, "Sevillanas" consists of eleven short performances by Spain's most famous flamenco dancers, singers and guitarists. Saura, well-known for his flamenco films ("Blood Wedding," "Carmen"), here provides an in-depth look at the Sevillanas form of flamenco and its dancers.