Forbidden Game of Love

Breaking up for the summer vacation, popular literature teacher Don Luis wishes his students well and sets them a holiday project on the myth of “delayed revenge”. Later, driving away from the city, Don Luis sees two of his students, Miguel and Julia, hitch hiking. He offers them a ride and they eventually agree to spend the night at Don Luis’s isolated house in the country, which they soon discover is a palatial mansion with extensive private grounds.
The young lovers get to spend their first night in bed together and discuss the possibility of staying on in the large house, its only other inhabitant being Jaime (Simon Andreu), a man in his 30s, who seems to be some sort of servant to Don Luis. The next day they decide to go for a walk, only to discover that the tall iron gates of the house are firmly chained shut. They challenge Don Luis, who then produces a pistol and they realise that they are now prisoners, along with Jaime.
 
What then follows is a series of bizarre and sexually charged “games” which seem designed to break down their spirit of resistance and force them to accept Don Luis as their superior and mentor. However, when Don Luis finally returns to his teaching duties, Miguel, Julia and Jaime begin to see a way to reverse the power balance. As things change in the house, the forbidden game becomes one of life and death.
 
The film was very controversial when first released, being seen as a comment on the fascist dictatorship of General Franco, and suffered 42 censor cuts. This present version, the first English-friendly release of the film, is fully uncut and restored from the original negative. It’s a startling and sometimes shocking film that richly deserves rediscovery.