A still from “Raise Ravens,” directed by Carlos Saura, 1976. “Raise Ravens,” a well-known masterpiece by Carlos Saura that delves deeply into the vastness of universal generalizations, oversteps the limits of the genre of social-philosophical fable which brought a worldwide fame to this distinguished film director (“The Hunt,” “Anna and the Wolves,” “Cousin Angelica”). Along with “The Spirit of Beehive” by Victor Erice, Saura’s movie has been a fount of inspiration to many outstanding films about childhood in the beginning of the twenty-first century (from the “Tideland” by Gilliam to “Pan’s Labyrinth” by Del Toro). However, apart from his fellow Spaniard, who has attracted his viewer’s attention to counter-intuitive twists of a child’s imagination by creating a mystical fable about the presence of invisible in the mundane and about the lameness of the materialistic, one-dimensional worldview, the creator of “Raise Ravens” is more specific.
If we draw aesthetic parallels, then “The Spirit of Beehive” would be a Symbolist movie, as if directed by Blok or Sologub, whereas “Raise Ravens” is Acmeist, and it views childhood as if through the eyes of Gumilev and Akhmatova,1 since its impressions are so palpable it almost truly hurts. The undeniable influence of Ingmar Bergman, and particularly of his movie “Cries and Whispers,” is felt in many structural elements of “Raise Ravens.” We can observe it in the unhurried and slowed-down rhythm that provokingly ignores the principles of cinematographic beauty, the heartrending, camera-facing monologues-confessions, replete with sincere and authentic sufferings, and a deep insight into the human personality which rejects a primitive socio-economic determinism, superficial behaviorism and genre clichés in the portrayal of human emotions.
A still from “Raise Ravens,” directed by Carlos Saura, 1976.
All this combined makes Saura’s movie conceptually and stylistically related to the cinematic world of Bergman, an artist just as existentially inexhaustible as Shakespeare and Dostoevsky. At the same time, this esthetic tradition doesn’t imply replication, borrowings or much less plagiarism—the universe of “Raise Ravens” is unique, shocking viewers with its forethought, laconism of elements used, their architectonic alignment, absence of gaps not only in the plot, but also in its implementation. What characterizes the artistic world of “Raise Ravens”? Above all, it is a no-compromise approach, or even aggressiveness, to the unlocking of the main conflict between the child’s perception unfamiliar with nuances and often acting cruel towards loved ones—and the adults, broken and disappointed in life, disoriented in the world of failed values. Saura’s innovative approach for the depiction of childhood lies exactly in the fact that he has no scruples depicting child’s cruelty.
A still from “Raise Ravens,” directed by Carlos Saura, 1976.
We are so used to seeing a sugary-sweet depiction of children in movies who look like angels made flesh that we forget how the first poisonous signs of egoism emerge in childhood and take the form of hot temper, emotional unmanageability and naughtiness. Children often act cruel towards their parents as they assume the whole world rotates around them, with adults being as if their servants. Certainly, Saura also shows adults in an unflattering light, in the whole abundance of their weaknesses, but more importantly, as people who have no idea why they live, where they guide their children, and who don’t know what to offer them.
A still from “Raise Ravens,” directed by Carlos Saura, 1976.
Saura depicts adults as people who have no idea why they live, where they guide their children, and who don’t know what to give them
They are strict because they are powerless and fail to grasp the meaning of life. The children sense this, because they also seek such meaning, but since they lack the rationality of a mature mind, they are walking a treacherous path, setting their imagination free and starting to hate reality from the young age. Death scenes play a fundamental part in the film—not simply the episodes, but exactly the scenes, created by the director with an almost blunt fervency of Goya. Death, which a little child is learning to contemplate, is equally a terrifying and monumental theme. However, Saura elaborates on it with the virtuosity of a great artist. The death scene of the mother of a young leading character, who observes this dreadful mystery, is set as the emotional epicenter of his film—which throws the viewer off the line of perception, plunging him into confusion and real mental anguish experienced on a physical level.
A still from “Raise Ravens,” directed by Carlos Saura, 1976.
Anna Torrent, who plays girl character, has a look of anguish mixed with impassiveness: she stares at her mother as if from inside the unseen world. Probably this is how the angels look at the sufferings of people (recall “Wings of Desire”). Saura makes the most out of this little girl, an aspiring actress, squeezing out of her every single emotion he needs, but they appear ever so subtly and casually, making it exceedingly difficult for a viewer to detect the dynamics of Anna’s character. The skill of conveying the almost autistic lethargy and numbness of the child as she faces the surrounding world, is a top class of a mature man making a film about childhood. Children can easily clam up once exposed to evil, and they escape and live in the world of fantasies, even when they grow older. If only we, parents, could understand the importance of the development of a morally healthy psychological climate in the family, so that, by example and the testimony of sincere mutual love, we could teach our children to never fear reality, but defend against its evil by laboring patiently every day in order to act altruistically, rejecting themselves in the name of God and people. If only we could understand this! We would have raised our children differently—and by doing so, we would have saved them from harmful chimeras of virtual reality!
A still from “Raise Ravens,” directed by Carlos Saura, 1976.
However, Saura—an atheist—arrives at pessimistic existential conclusions. Therefore, death is savage and physiological for him, a sight unbearable to see not only for children, but also for adults. Utterly terrifying is the death of an unbeliever, who doesn’t strive to find God, who is bound to all things temporal… As Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev once said, at the moment of death, man’s soul is as if snatched from the body, like a tooth, along with flesh, causing unbearable pain. It is because an earthly soul is attached to its body, and when these bonds are broken, this is unbearable pain. Already going through the agony of death, this soul experiences hellish torment. This is how Anna’s mother dies, or one of the sisters in “Cries and Whispers,” or Ivan Ilyich Golovin in Tolstoy's story.2 Torn between the illusions of imagination and the physiological specificity of death, atheistic consciousness can’t perceive the most important thing, as it deprives itself of spirituality. By being bound to passions, atheistic consciousness enslaves the spirit and turns its existence into an everyday torture. Then, suddenly, upon the separation of the soul and the body, the atheist finally learns of his immortality, but he can no longer do anything with it. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption (Galatians 6:8).
Because, ultimately, there is no difference between life for the sake of aesthetic illusions of imagination and a primitive material life: both are false, a chimera for the soul. Spiritual life and life for God and with God is not an abstract design of philosophizing minds, but a concrete and true selfless denial of self, when you consciously and intentionally oppress yourself and exert your body, mind and soul to allow the Uncreated Light of grace to shine in those cramped quarters. It is the Light beyond all being, the Light unapproachable, which scorches every wickedness and corruption, the fire of the Burning Bush, in which you stand and become illuminated, yet you are never consumed by Him. This is the presence of God in the life and in the soul. This standing in the fire of grace, which has become a constant, is the victory of man over himself, the victory of God in man—the very Kingdom of Heaven that many saints reached already in their lifetime.
A still from “Raise Ravens,” directed by Carlos Saura, 1976.
Saura intuitively recognizes the inferiority of existential dilemma presented by him and the inadequacy of both the way of riotous imagination and the way of habituation of everyday existence. He’s looking for a third way but he can’t see it, even though he comes very close! Everyone who has submitted to another person unwittingly but faithfully moves closer to God. Like is known by like. We come to know the truth of Christ and the truth of His Kingdom only when we submit ourselves to the practice of self-denial. It shouldn’t necessarily end with death for the sake of the other, but it should always be a daily self-sacrifice for the sake of love of man. It starts small, but it subtly and gradually transitions to a complete disregard of self. This way our innermost man begins to flourish; this is how we put off our old self. This is what constitutes salvation, for he who isn’t with God won’t be saved, and only he who becomes like Him will be with Him.
He who isn’t with God won’t be saved, and only he who becomes like Him will be with Him
“Raise Ravens” refers us to the paradoxical proverb: “Bring up the crow, and it’ll peck your eyes out” in reference to the ingratitude and great demands that childhood places on adults. That’s the point—that we mustn’t feed our inner enemy, a capricious ego, and may it die from hunger, unable to satisfy its immoderate appetites. May the raven die in the human heart, and the dove, the grace of the Holy Spirit, spread wings instead, bringing its fruits, which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Galatians 5: 22–23).
Therefore, I submit that Saura, by contradiction, made a Christian film and showcased the futility and hopelessness of life in pursuit of passions, the vainglory and dreadfulness of atheism facing the unknown, the meaningless wandering of a person going through life for the sake of self and around the border that connects his corrupt, miserable, and blind existence with the eternity, where “all deeds will be exposed.” For, in the Light of Christ, everything will be exposed and no one will avail, except those who desired to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24), becoming in all things like the One God, Who was crucified, Who has died and Who rose from the dead.
