¡Ay Carmela! is a 1990 Spanish film directed by Carlos Saura and based on the eponymous play by José Sanchís Sinisterra. The film stars Carmen Maura, Andrés Pajares, and Gabino Diego as a trio of traveling players performing for the Republic, who inadvertently find themselves on the Nationalist side during the closing months of the Spanish Civil War.
Carmela, Paulino, and Gustavete - who is mute as the result of an explosion - are a trio of traveling vaudeville performers. Among the chaos of the Spanish Civil War, they are in the town of Montejo, entertaining republican troops with their variety act. They are survivors motivated not exactly by patriotism but by a desire for self-preservation. Their show consists of four acts. It begins with Carmela singing and dancing a traditional song. The audience is enthusiastic during her performance, but the mood changes completely when the sound of approaching Nationalist planes is heard.
When the planes just fly over, the show continues with Paulino reading a poem by Antonio Machado that introduces a note of patriotic fervor representing the feelings of the Republicans in 1938. The seriousness of the moment is followed by a comic routine in
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