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Poster for Year of Enlightment

Year of Enlightment

1986 · 105 min

A tender, bittersweet coming-of-age story set in a secluded sanatorium, blending warmth, melancholy, and quiet sensuality.

Overview
April, 1940. Manolo, 16 years old, and Jesus, who is just 8, are taken by their older brother Pepe, a lieutenant in the Army, to a sanatorium for children suffering from tuberculosis, situated on the border with Portugal. Once in the sanatorium, Manolo, surrounded by boys all much younger than he is, feels a bit like the cock of the walk since the only other man around is the handyman Emilio who looks after the gardens and does whatever needs to be done about the place. His wife, Rafaela, is the cook. Manolo meets Irene, a falangist who runs the sanatorium, and the school teacher, Miss Transito, a crabby spinster. He has his first sexual experience, albeit as a voyeur, with his nurse Vicenta. When she has to leave, her place is taken by a girl from the village, Maria Jesus, with whom Manolo falls hopelessly in love. A relationship grows up between them which will mark them both for ever.

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • warmstrength 2 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • whimsicalstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • coming-of-age
  • love
  • identity
  • isolation
  • family
Places
  • countryside
  • single country house
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
None
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex strong
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror1
Humour5
Realism8
Romance6
Tension3
Darkness4
Complexity4
Emotional weight6

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama, war
Directed by
Fernando Trueba
Written by
Fernando Trueba, Rafael Azcona
Starring
Jorge Sanz, Verónica Forqué, Maribel Verdú, Rafaela Aparicio, Santiago Ramos, Chus Lampreave, José «Saza» Sazatornil, Manuel Alexandre
Cinematography
Juan Amorós
Runtime
105 min
Country
Spain
Languages
French, Spanish

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