The Year of Maria

2000 Spanish film

The Year of Maria

Theatrical release poster

Spanish| Año mariano
Directed by|

* Fernando Guillén Cuervo
* Karra Elejalde

Screenplay by|

* José Antonio Ortega
* Karra Elejalde
* Fernando Guillén Cuervo

Produced by| Juanjo Landa
Starring|

* Karra Elejalde
* Fernando Guillén Cuervo
* Manuel Manquiña
* Gloria Muñoz
* Silvia Bel
* Karlos Arguiñano
* Fernando Guillén

Cinematography| Hans Burmann
Edited by| Pablo Blanco
Music by| Kike Suárez Alba

Production
company

Asegarce Zinema

Distributed by| Aurum Films

Release date

* 11 August 2000 (2000-08-11)

Country| Spain
Language| Spanish

The Year of Maria (Spanish: Año mariano) is a 2000 Spanish black comedy film directed by Karra Elejalde and Fernando Guillén Cuervo, who also star in the film alongside Manuel Manquiña, Gloria Muñoz, and Sílvia Bel.

## Plot

[edit]

Mariano, an alcoholic cassette salesman, crashes on a marijuana plantation being burned by Guardia Civil agents, so dazed and hallucinated by narcotics, he sees the Virgin Mary. With help from a middling showman (Tony Towers) he becomes a messianic figure in rural southern Spain.[1][2]

## Cast

[edit]

* Karra Elejalde as Mariano[3]
* Fernando Guillén Cuervo as Antonio Torres (Tony Towers)[3]
* Manuel Manquiña as sargento Pablo Talavera[3]
* Gloria Muñoz as sor Trini[3]
* Sílvia Bel [es] as María Vélez[4]
* Fernando Guillén as don Simón
* Juan Viadas as don Javier[4]
* Pepín Tre [es] as Hopper[3]
* Karlos Arguiñano as Viriato[5]

## Production

[edit]

The film was produced by Asegarce with the collaboration of TVE, Vía Digital [es], and ETB.[4] Shooting locations in the province of Almería included Cala Carbón (Níjar).[6]

## Release

[edit]

Distributed by Aurum,[4] the film was released theatrically in Spain on 11 August 2000.[7] It was the second-largest grossing Spanish film at the 2000 domestic box-office after Common Wealth.[8]

## Reception

[edit]

Jonathan Holland of Variety deemed the film (otherwise stylistically a baby brother to Juanma Bajo Ulloa's Airbag), to be "at worst sloppy and uncontrolled, at best nicely imaginative".[4]

## Accolades

[edit]

Year  | Award  | Category | Nominee(s)  | Result | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

2001 | 15th Goya Awards | Best Special Effects | Juan Ramón Molina, Alfonso Nieto | Nominated | [9]

## See also

[edit]

* List of Spanish films of 2000

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Fernández-Santos, Elsa (16 November 2000). "Alucinados". El País.
2. ^ Bernárdez, García & González 2008, p. 132.
3. ^ a b c d e "Año mariano". Fotogramas. 29 May 2008.
4. ^ a b c d e Holland, Jonathan (18 September 2000). "The Year of Maria". Variety.
5. ^ "Cine en TV por Federico Marín Bellón". ABC. 28 April 2007.
6. ^ "Níjar, el municipio con el plató de cine más natural de Andalucía". Diario de Almería. Grupo Joly. 25 March 2022.
7. ^ "'Año mariano', la película española más taquillera del año". El Mundo.
8. ^ Bernárdez, Asunción; García, Irene; González, Soraya (2008). Violencia de género en el cine español. Análisis de los años 1998 a 2002 y guía didáctica (PDF). Madrid: Editorial Complutense. p. 13\. ISBN 978-84-7491-923-3.
9. ^ "Año Mariano". premiosgoya.com. Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España. Retrieved 3 June 2023.

*[Ref.]: Reference