SOMEONE HAS TO DIE/ Alguien tiene que morir

Mexico/Spain, 2020, 149 minutes, Colour.
Cecilia Suarez, Ernesto Alterio, Alejandro Speitzer, Isaac Hernandez, Ester Exposito, Carlos Cuevas, Carmen Maura.
Directed by Manolo Caro.

Appearing on Netflix, this film was divided into 3x50 minute sections, presenting it as a miniseries.

While the film is basically Mexican, it is set in Spain in the last years of Franco’s regime. It does highlight class distinctions in Spanish society – and also the snobbery of Spaniards towards the colonial Mexicans.

The tone is quite Hispanic, melodramatic, even operatic, especially in its culmination. This may be too much for some sensibilities but, allowing for cultural styles, the film has much going for it.

The film focuses on a family. The son has spent 10 years in Mexico, from the time he was a little boy, and has now returned to Madrid, accompanied by a Mexican friend who is a successful ballet dancer. The father, a successful businessman, doing deals with intrigue, intends his son to get his life in order and become a businessman like himself. The father is also dominating of his wife, quite brutal, especially in sexual encounters. His mother is very glad to see her son and also welcomes the dancer.

For a complication, the grandmother also lives in the house. She is an extraordinarily strong and dominating personality, her husband having died 10 years earlier in a shooting accident. She is played by Spanish actress, Carmen Maura, notable in Spanish films over the decades, especially in filmed by Pedro Almodovar.

There is a surprising episode at the beginning of the film, women working in a prison like factory, 14 hour shifts, all lined up and harangued by a priest, especially condemning two women for their lesbian relationship. This introduces the same-sex theme. Many presume that the son returning from Mexico is in a relationship with the dancer. Gossip goes around, homosexuality is legislated against and homosexuals should be reported to the government – where they are interned, tortured to get further names.

Meanwhile, the focus is also on another family, and the occasion of shooting competitions, pigeons, their wings clipped, released and shot. There are official competitions, highly social events. One of the champions, from the other family, is a literally buttoned up, suit and tie, businessman, playing football, macho, but, it is clear, about his closeted sexual orientation and his attraction towards the friend coming back from Spain. There is a past.

At some stages, concerning relationships, there are some comedies of errors. There is a lot of gossip, jealousy, manipulation, cover-up. However, ultimately, there are some tragedies of errors, the father denouncing and imprisoning his son, the fact that the dancer is heterosexual and is attracted towards his friend’s mother, the sister intended for marriage to the son coming back from Mexico, gossiping, drawing false conclusions, malicious.

And, there is the truth about the grandmother, her husband, her hold on her son, her manipulation of a household servant whose communist husband is in jail, destroying documents…

The climax, with rifles and guns, involves all the central characters, confrontations, deaths, pathos – and a critique of self-involved families, consequences of repressive homophobia and sexual legislation, a retrospective on the strictness of the Franco regime.


1. A Mexican/Spanish production, the Hispanic sensibility, melodramatic, operatic?

2. Spain, the 1970s, the last years of Franco’s regime? Strict and repressive? Different classes in Spain, society, looking down on the poor? And looking down on Mexican colonials?

3. Madrid, the city, the streets and buildings, offices, prisons and factories, homes? The musical score?

4. The broadcast is three episodes in a miniseries? Yet a 150 minute film?

5. The sequence with the women, setting a tone for the film, strict morality, religious dimensions, same-sex attraction and behaviour, the women assembled, the religious harangue and condemnation by the priest, the officials and their offices? The plans for the institution, 14 hour shifts, the oppression of the women, the financial deals, for management?

6. The establishing of the family, the initial setting of the shooting competition, Alonzo and his superiority, suit and tie, his sister and her taunting, the family pride? An establishment activity? Shooting, the birds, clipping their wings, their being shot? The later return to this theme, expectations of members of the family, competitions, winning, reputation, celebrations afterwards?

7. Gregorio, businessman, the deals concerning the factories, his wanting his son to work there? His return home, his disdainful treatment of his wife, the brutal sexual encounter? His mother in the house, a dominant presence? His wife, from Mexico, his despising Mexicans, her loneliness in the house? The joy of the return of her son from Mexico
after 10 years?

8. Rosario, the maid in the house, her working with the mistress, treatment by the grandmother, her husband, Communist, in prison, her son’s visit, her dread of being reported as the wife of a Communist, the documents, wanting the support of her mistress, yet the pressure from the grandmother, Rosario betraying her mistress, taking the key, giving it to the grandmother? The grandmother tearing up the document about her husband? Her wanting her husband removed and not sent to the harsh prison, the visit of the son, the news that her husband had died? Her betrayal and futility?

9. Gabino, 10 years in Mexico, a sense of freedom, his being accompanied by Lazzaro, the ballet dancer, his family glad to see him, his father’s expectations, the grandmother and the sinister memories, his having witnessed the killing her husband, going to Mexico, the memories of the child? Lazzaro welcomed into the house?

10. The rumours about sexuality? The introduction of the theme? The repressive laws in the Franco regime? Reporting and denunciation, arrests, torture for information? Homophobia, not understanding same-sex relationships? The irony of Lazzaro not being homosexual, Gabino being homosexually oriented, Alonso and his suppression, Cayetana, her attitudes, spreading gossip, Alonso and his homophobic friends?

11. The reality of orientations and relationships? Gabino and his advance to Lazzaro? Lazzaro and his attraction towards Gabino’s mother, the intimacy? The reconciliation between the two men, observed by Cayetana and her telling her father? Gregorio and his unwillingness to believe it? Making demands on Gabino to take the job? The interview with Alonso, and the memories of the past encounter?

12. Alonso, in the closet, the shooting, his friends, rugged playing football, the shower sequence and the innuendo? His moments of denial with Gabino?

13. Gabino, denounced by his father, taken to watch the torturing of the gay man and to get information, his being put in the same cell, the tortured man and his asking to be no to seek out his lover? Gabino released from jail?

14. Gabino, taken by Alonso and his friends, beaten? The plan to leave, the train to Paris, his mother getting the tickets, at the station, the arrival of the police, Gabino arrested, Lazzaro escaping?

15. Lazzaro, hiding out, wanting to help Gabino, the encounter with Mina, the motivation behind the helpful woman inviting everyone to come into the bush, the sexual encounter
between Lazzaro and Mina? The consequences?

16. Alonso wanting to help Gabino, coming with the gun, sitting in the car, asking about loving a man, Gabino and his narrative about the boy when they were young, Alonso’s tears, thinking to kill himself? Gabino’s restraint?

17. The role of the grandmother, a strong personality, dominance, snobbery, despising Mina, controlling her son, the sequence of her narrating her husband’s murder? Her reputation and her speech to the assembled women for the competition?

18. Gregorio, tormented, the letter about his mother and the murder, his attacking her?

19. The motif throughout the film of the spotlight on each of the characters, as if that were targets? That someone must die?

20. The finale, operatic, the confrontations, the guns, the wounding then killing of Lazzaro? The grandmother, Gregorio’s death, confronting her grandson, Alonzo and the gun, his being shot? Gabino confronting his grandmother, shooting her?

21. Gabino left with his mother? Their grief? The future and the future of Spain?