Camilo José Cela

As in the novel of the same title from Camilo Jose Cela, "La Colmena" is a sad composition with the stories of many people in the Madrid of 1942, just the postwar of the spanish civil war. The main theme of the film is the contrast between the poets, surviving close to misery under the Franco's regime, and the winners of the war, the emerging class of the people that makes easy money with illegal business.

In Extremadura, Spain, Pascual Duarte, a humble, simple and ignorant peasant, condemned to a boring and humiliating existence with no future, commits a horrible act during a day of such heat that enervates his disturbed mind and his anger, which he will not be able to calm down until, after following a bloody path of senseless violence, he faces his own tragic destiny.

Carlos goes to visit his girlfriend Juana at the asylum where she works. Once there, the director introduces him to his niece, who is obsessed with playing the harp, and to a nurse who repeats word for word what Carlos says.

Divided in several episodes, this film presents different stories that share the fantasy theme.

Miniseries version of the first half of Cervantes' famous novel.