Beyond controversy: Rethinking the films of Bigas Luna

José Juan Bigas Luna (1946–2013) was one of Spain’s most influential film directors of the last five decades, enjoying considerable national and international success. His films are often associated with controversy due to his penchant for taboo subjects, including rape, sadomasochism, incest or bestiality. While these scandals brought much publicity to the films, they also often eclipsed their critical reception at home and abroad. This special issue of Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas brings together specialists from around the world in order to revisit some of his most critically acclaimed works (the English-language horror film Anguish, the ‘Iberian Portraits Trilogy’), but also to draw attention to the more recent and perhaps less known work of the last two decades: what Carolina Sanabria has described as the ‘historical diptych’; and the unfinished trilogy about women and success.