Pointed evocation of life in one of the lesser Canaries during the time of the Spanish Civil War, which brings out the claustrophobia & isolation in its small town, as well as the strangeness of the island's volcanic landscape. The best thing, though, is the dramatic structure: we meet the Islanders through a Basque doctor sent to be the local medico. He spots Mararia one morning, & it's a more convincing version of the thunderbolt scene from "The Godfather". She wants him too, as much as a means of escape as for his own qualities (though he's quite handsome), but his conservatism & diffidence defer the sparking of a relationship. Now, one expects the film to be the story of how he learns to embrace her & her people, or doesn't. But then an English vulcanologist shows up, & Mararia, again, desperate for escape, flirts with him instead: more successfully than with the doctor, becoming pregnant with his child, & obtaining a promise of marriage. Seeing all this from the doctor's perspective provides a fascinatingly Latin variation on a Henry James theme. Alas, the film plunks for melodrama, not being content to carry the doctor off to his lonely conclusion. The second part, set after the war, is even worse. The end is nearly unwatchable. Still, this is a film you ought to see.
