01
The Devil's Backbone
Why this pick
Its Spanish Civil War backdrop, damaged children and Gothic imagery turn historical trauma into an emotionally bruising, visually heightened fable.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE2010 1h 41m ESP
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Last Circus
ActionDramaThriller
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Last Circus, try these.
01
02
The Day of the Beast
Why this pick
De la Iglesia delivers the same delirious collision of black comedy, Catholic grotesquerie, violence and apocalyptic momentum, with an equally unruly pulp sensibility.
03
Pan's Labyrinth
Why this pick
A ravaged postwar Spain becomes the ground for baroque fantasy and cruelty, balancing fairy-tale spectacle with the lasting wounds of authoritarian violence.
04
The Skin I Live In
Why this pick
Its polished surfaces conceal escalating obsession, bodily horror and melodramatic excess—an operatic Spanish nightmare with a cruelly controlled tone.
05
Santa Sangre
Why this pick
Circus imagery, mutilated performers and fractured family trauma fuel a surreal, feverishly colorful descent that matches the film's taste for grotesque melodrama.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
Our curator needs a little longer. Please come back shortly.
No confident matches yet. Try our personal film finder.
01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
In 1937, Republican faction (Spanish Civil War) force a circus troupe to fight on their side in the Spanish Civil War. The Funny Clown (Santiago Segura) slaughters dozens of Nationalist troops, armed only with a machete, before being shot and disarmed. While his fellow troupe members are executed, the Funny Clown is sentenced to work as a slave laborer, at the monument of the Valle de los Caídos. His son, Javier (Sasha Di Bendetto) tries to free him by setting off dynamite where he was working. But Colonel Salcedo (Sancho Gracia) tramples the Funny Clown to death with his horse. Javier knocks him down, gouging out his eye in the process. Salcedo vows to remember Javier for this insult.
Showing saved details. Some information may be out of date.
02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Santiago Segura
Padre-Payaso tonto
Fran Perea
Soldado nacional
Carlos Areces
Javier
Manuel Tallafé
Ramiro
Manuel Tejada
Jefe de pista
Enrique Villén
Andrés
Gracia Olayo
Sonsoles
Carolina Bang
Natalia