Another TV co-production made by TV stations in Catalonia, Valencia, Andalucia and Galicia - but one of the best! It could hardly be otherwise: with Ana Fernández and María Galiana together again (Solas, qv), good results can be expected. And adding Ruth Gabriel was simply a very good idea. You should, if you get the chance, listen to her singing duets with Rocío Jurado.
Set in the mid-sixties or a little later, 'La Mari' is the story of a young mother who suddenly finds herself a widow after an explosion in the mine near the village in Huelva, in the deep south of Spain, kills her husband. Why this telefilm had to show us the scene of the infamous 'Bolidon' disaster, in which the Swedish-owned mining company caused huge ecological losses when one of the dams broke flooding the Río Tinto with toxic waste right down to the Doñana National Park, just beats me. But this is just a bitter taste in my mouth, as the rest of the film is well played out.
The young mother - Ana Fernández - decides to emigrate to Catalonia, as did countless thousands of people from the poorer areas of Andalusia and Extremadura back in the 50s and 60s of the last century. Barcelona spelt help and a better life. She soon meets up with Reme (Ruth Gabriel) in a convent boarding school, and later meets Genara (María Galiana). But she also meets up with all kinds of problems and even tragedies, amid the seething hypocrisy of Franco's Catholic Spain: the film takes a very hard swipe at the ecclesiastical establishment.
This TV-mini is of two 120 minute parts and is recommendable. However, for people not acquainted with contemporary Spanish history, some nuances and considerations may well be lost.
Good work by Jesús Garay, as often these kinds of TV co-productions made by different regional TV stations here in Spain are rather poorer in quality. I have recently commented on 'Condenado a vivir' (qv).
