The Challenges

Los desafíos

Spain

1969

102 Min

Color

Spanish

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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DIR Claudio Guerín, José Luis Egea, Víctor Erice

SCR Rafael Azcona, Claudio Guerín, José Luis Egea, Víctor Erice

CAST Dean Selmier, Francisco Rabal, Asunción Balaguer, Teresa Rabal, Alfredo Mayo, Julia Gutiérrez Caba, Barbara Deist, Fernando Sánchez Polack, Daisy Granados, Julia Peña, Luis Suárez

What if Easy Rider was a Spanish anthology film? Although crude, that’s one way of getting at 1969’s Los desafíos, a trilogy of vignettes directed by Claudio Guerín, José Luis Egea, and Víctor Erice.
Dean Selmier appears in all three, playing a hippie, an American soldier, and a wanderer. In each episode, he meets an untimely, unsightly end.
With Francisco Rabal, Alfredo Mayo, and Julia Pena. Winner of the Silver Seashell at the San Sebastian Film Festival. —facetsdvd.com

Director

Víctor Erice

Spanish director Victor Erice made two of his country’s most important and critically lauded films, El Espiritu de la Colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive) (1973) and Sur (The South) (1983). Erice had studied political science before entering the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas in 1960. Shortly after graduation in 1963, he worked as a film critic and worked on the script for Antonio Eceiza’s El Proximo Otoño (Next Autumn) (1963). He also collaborated on Miguel Picazo’s Oscuros Sueños de Agosto (Dark Dreams of August) (1967). Influential producer Elías Querejeta provided Erice his first opportunity to direct by assigning him a chance to helm one of three episodes in Los Desafios (The Challenges) (1969). Following his success with El Sur, Erice became a prolific director of television commercials and worked uncredited on numerous other feature films. In 1992, Erice reemerged on the film scene with his dream-like documentary of painter Antonio Lopez’s quest for… read more