Javier Calvo | First Impressions

LA BOLA NEGRA (Los Javis, 2026) is the most popular film of 2026 in Spain, surpassing SPIDERMAN BRAND NEW DAY and THE ODYSSSEY in number of tickets sold and is also currently the third-highest grossing Spanish film in Spanish film history. It won Best Director at Cannes, People’s Choice at the Toronto International Film Festival, the audience award at the BFI London Film Festival, and many more prizes. I’ve seen it twice and the majority of the people in the audiences I saw it with here in Birmingham stayed in their seats until the lights came up, when one could see some of them crying. It moved me greatly both times.

With all this success, the backlash has been swift and vicious: t’s not radical enough, not queer enough, not very good cinema, too monumental says Justin Chang — as if the film were some version of C.B. De Mille in Stanley Kramer drag. I admire Chang but his review in THE NEW YORKER has something of the imperial it, no barrier to its circulation in throughout Spain and at the speed of light, as if Chang’s uninformed views on Spanish cinema and culture were proof the film’s success was just marketing and publicity (which Los Javis are indeed superb at).

All of this as prelude and context to my wanting to speak to Alberto Mira on the film. Mira is a Professor in Film Studies at the School of Arts at Oxford Brookes University who has written numerous books on Spanish Cinema (THE CINEMA OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 2005; HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF SPANISH CINEMA, 2010), LGBTQ+ cinema ( MIRADAS INSUMISAS: GAYS Y LESBIANAS EN EL CINE. 2008; ENTRE LA CÁMARA Y LA CARNE: EL CINE HOMOERÓTICO EN 25 PELICULAS, 2023); queer history (DE SODOMA A CHUECA: UNA HISTORIA CULTURAL DE LA HOMOSEXUALIDAD EN ESPAÑA EN EL SIGLO XX, 2004); and queer theory (CRÓNICA DE UN DEVENIR: SUBJETIVIDAD, TIEMPO Y GENERACIONES, 2021). I can’t think of anyone better informed on these subjects.

In the podcast we discuss how the film is mainstream, not art cinema, inventive without being innovative but very substantial. We talk of its relationship to Lorca and Alberto Conejeros’ play on Lorca (LA PIEDRA OSCURA, 2013); the themes of unfulfilled lives, repression and silence as ways the queer intersects with the national/popular in Spain, particularly in relation to narratives of the Civil War; the importance of the moments with Glenn Close and Penelope Cruz, not just sparkly star cameos, but adding significant thematic richness, the first in relation to pre-Civil War gender and sexual freedoms; the latter in relation to biography; we also talk of the casting of Guitarrica de la Fuente and Miguel Bernardeau; the importance of the last section of the film, with the grandson, Alberto; Lola Dueñas as the mother; the uses of esperpento throughoutLA BOLA NEGRA, and the way the film links the queer and the civil war to silence, inheritances, repressions…and much more. You can listen to the podcast below:

The podcast may be listened to below: