Animals were harmed during the making of this film. A cruel reality in Hispanic cinema

In his reflections on terrorism, Jean Baudrillard states that as long as events are at a standstill, one has to anticipate and overcome them, but that the standstill can be ended by the irruption of reality. Although the symbolism of scenes of the killing of animals in films such as La caza, Pascual Duarte and Furtivos have been analysed in individual studies, this comparative study observes the common and indisputable reality of the cruelty rather than the narrative-bound symbolism of the slaughter and argues that it was this reality that constituted the true effect and meaning of the events on-screen. Subsequently, this study draws a parallel between the real animal cruelty of these Spanish films and that which has recently been perceived and excoriated by the British press in films from Latin and South America, such as Amores perros, City of God and The Dancer Upstairs, and it considers whether these responses are symptomatic of the current foreign policy of the United States and the United Kingdom.