It is important not to insist on viewing other cultures and other times
only through our own perspective.
 
I mean, really: Dostoyevsky has a novel which has characteristically
always been translated as "The Idiot."  And the word "idiot" figures
prominently  as both an epithet and a scientific term in the last
paragraph, as the protagonist becomes one.  A little more context, please.
 
So much more about LAS HURDES is more important than many people's
current uneasiness with the term "idiot"--I hope that when people are
teaching this film, they are using it to demonstrate how surrealism can
be present even in the absence of "dream and fantasy imagery"--which is
how too many people, falsely, represent this very important and anarchic
movement.  After visiting the North of Spain for the first time ever this
past year, I am convinced, more than ever, that LAS HURDES is one of 2 or
3 key Bunuel works.
 
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