Review: the majesty of ‘La Bola Negra’

Reid Kellermann | Staff Illustrator Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is perhaps the simplest definition of a theatrical epic: a story rife with omnipotent gods and towering monsters, devastating wars and shocking betrayals, earth-shaking storms and the spilled blood of great men. But that is not the only way to film one. In “La Bola Negra,” directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi offer a different meaning of an epic: one defined not by grandiosity but instead by achingly human stories, charged gazes, and an interrogation of the invisible structures that ostracize and erase queerness in Western society. The film paints a beautiful tapestry of the otherwise invisible lives of three gay men who are interconnected across generations in Spain. Through focusing on their ordinary struggles at the sidelines of the Spanish Civil War, yet always getting stuck in the wet mud and bruised hearts of their vicious internal conflicts, “La Bola Negra” cements itself as a masterful epic.

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