Milo Quifes on Starring in Oscar Contender La Bola Negra
Granada Aristocracy and 1932 Prejudices Shape the Screen Debut of Milo Quifes in La Bola Negra
A baroque casino set brought Milo Quifes to his first professional acting experience in the Cannes-feted film La Bola Negra, abc.net.au reported. The sweeping historical drama, currently playing in cinemas and backed by Netflix for an Oscar campaign, adapts an unfinished theatrical fragment by Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca. Written and directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known as Los Javis, the film casts Quifes as Carlos, a well-to-do young man in 1932 Granada facing rejection from his father’s exclusive social club due to his closeted homosexuality.
He remarked, I could feel all these little things, in reading Lorca, that helped me play Carlos.
Three Intertwined Timeframes Build a Modernist Epic
The first thread follows Quifes as Carlos in 1932 Granada. A second storyline shifts to 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, where a young village musician named Sebastián falls in with General Franco’s rebel forces and guards an injured Republican prisoner, Rafael. Miguel Bernardeau plays Lorca’s bereaved lover. Rafael was the last lover of García Lorca, who was assassinated by Francoist forces in 1936 at under 40 years of age, leaving behind the unfinished text that gives the film its title. A third contemporary thread in 2017 follows a gay writer-scholar named Alberto who receives a mysterious inheritance leading back to the historical threads.
La Bola Negra Contends for Academy Awards
Following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where Los Javis won best director and the film earned nominations for the Palme d’Or and the Queer Palm, La Bola Negra has emerged as a prominent international feature contender for the Academy Awards. The Sydney Morning Herald noted that industry predictions place the Spanish box-office hit neck-and-neck with classical epics through awards season, supported by a streaming campaign from Netflix ahead of December shortlists. Penélope Cruz stars as a cabaret singer, a performance that has drawn additional praise from festival panels, alongside a supporting appearance by Glenn Close as an American scholar.
Working on La Bola Negra was, Penélope Cruz says, one of the best periods of my life
and added, I fell in love with her.
Disclaimer: The views and cultural analyses presented in this article are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Information regarding legal disputes or financial data is based on available public records.