La Nau presents the restored version of “The Tenant”, a censored classic film that anticipated the housing crisis

The film addressed –with an unbelievable clarity– the drama in relation with the access to housing during the Francoist Spain. It became a pioneering film and one work of surprising validity in the current context. Shortly after its premiere, it was removed from the billboard and released again years later with numerous cuts imposed by the censorship. The copy that the Filmoteca Españolais presenting brings back the original, complete and restored film in 2025.

The session will have the presence of José Luis Castro de Paz, full professor of Audiovisual Communication at the University of Santiago de Compostela and one of the most authoritative voices in the studies of the Spanish film industry. Recognised as one of the greatest experts in the post-war cinematography and in the work of Nieves Conde, Castro de Paz will present the film and, after the screening, he will give a lecture called “The restoration of The Tenant and the housing crisis – a current classic”.

Premiered in 1957, The Tenant tells the story of a family from Madrid threatened by eviction and trapped in a desperate search for a new home, all with a satirical and traditional style. Under its apparently popular comedy tone, the film deploys a fierce criticism to speculation, precarious housing, and the lack of social protection. This pioneering style explains both the conflict with the Francoist censorship and a single place within the history of the Spanish social cinema.

“The Tenant was produced collectively by the director and some of his friends, Berlanga among them”, Castro de Paz stated. “In spite of being unknown to the audience, is one of the most important films of Spanish cinema in the 50s, even as El Pisito and La vida por delante. It was a hot topic back then and, unfortunately, nowadays, since it talks about the difficulty of accessing to housing. It’s a film that anticipates the grotesque, exaggerated, and deeply critical cinema that Marco Ferreri began to work on, and that film-makers such as Luis Garcia Berlanga –with Plácido and The Executioner– and Fernando Fernán-Gómez –with Life Goes On and El Extraño Viaje started to carry out. It supposed the beginning of dark humour, very close to the one that Berlanga and Rafael Azcona used later”.

Therefore, it consists of a unique opportunity to watch an essential work. “The Tenant is a central film to understand the aesthetic and formal history of the Spanish cinema, which also has an excellent Fernán-Gómez playing the main role”, Castro de Paz added.

The talk will place the film in its double historical and contemporary dimension, as a key work to understand social tensions of the Francoist Spain, and as a classic film that comes back with an unexpected strength, in full crisis of housing access. Almost seventy years later of its premiere, The Tenant keeps intact its capacity to question a society crossed by precariousness and the rising cost of rent.

The restoration promoted by the Filmoteca Española enables the recovery of the original ending conceived by Nieves Conde, several cut scenes, and explanatory materials about the censorship process, besides the animated trailer made by Estudios Moro. The project was developed by the Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Fondos Fílmicos “Carlos Saura”, with the collaboration of the film-maker’s family and from original negatives in 35 mm.

With this event, the Cinema Club reasserts its commitment to the diffusion of the Spanish cinematographic heritage and with a programme capable of activating the critical memory of today. The Tenant is not only presented as a restored classic, but also as an urgent film, since it’s a work that keeps addressing –with great accuracy– one of the current social issues of Spain.

This activity has free access until full capacity.