Umbracle is made up of fragments (some are archive footage) that resound rather than progress by unusual links, with dejá vu scenes that promise us more but remain intensely unfinished. It stars Christopher Lee, wandering around a dream-like Barcelona.

Experimental Catalan director Pere Portabella is highly praised—vividly by Jonathan Rosenbaum—yet under-known, and it’s films like this poetic, fragmentary attack on Franco’s “official Spain” which make him essential. An avant-garde firebomb starring, believe it or not, Christopher Lee!