
The Sad Smell of Flesh
El triste olor de la carne
Directed by
Spain
2013
87 min
- Spanish
Drama
Karlovy Vary IFF
Alfredo Barrera seems like a normal guy. He seems to have a job. He seems to have a home. He seems to have a happy life. But things are usually not what they seem. He lost his job months ago and in 90 minutes, he will lose his house. But Alfredo has a plan. And he will execute it, no matter what.
Awards
- FIPRESCI Award - Seville EFF
Festivals
Credits
- Cast
- Alfredo Rodríguez
- Sabela Vázquez
- Ruth Sabucedo
- Xoana Baz
- Aroa Berjón
- Miguel Borines
- Daniel González
- Anna Cañadillas
- Manuel Paz
- Soraya Paradela
- Quique Fernández
- Alfonso Míguez
- Manuel Polo
- Screenplay
- Cristóbal Arteaga Rozas
- Cinematography
- Pablo Kaufmann
- Editing
- Pablo Kaufmann
Director's Statement
THE SAD SMELL OF FLESH is my instinctive reaction to a capitalized system that threads in destroying every aspect of humanity and social dialogue. A system that has being separating and confusing us. This movie is about the shame that makes us think about a society able to put ahead the profitability of a company instead of the value of humans. It’s about the false shame that is taken control over our lives. It’s about the thousands of people that have given up hope in Spain since the crisis began. Many have been hiding their condition up to the eviction date, hiding it to their own families. Human beings are terrified of losing their private property, because they are afraid of what people may say. It seems that society has been teaching us that our value depends in what we have. And not only that: it has also been teaching us that losing something is failure, and of course failure is not allowad. We live in an era where successes and failures are related to money. THE SAD SMELL OF FLESH is the story of one of its victims. His story could be your story.
- Production
- DEICA AUDIOVISUAL
Press
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The Sad Smell of Flesh is a potent protest about the human cost of economic meltdown.

Cristóbal Arteaga Rozas
Chile
Cristobal Arteaga Rozas worked for several years as an advertising copywriter in different Chilean and Spanish companies. Seven years ago, he studied screenwriting at the Universidad Católica de Chile (Catholic University of Chile). Since then, he has written several feature films. In 2008 and 2009, he obtained the Chilean script development fund with the feature films: MANUAL DE INSTRUCCIONES PARA OLVIDAR (INSTRUCTION MANUAL TO FORGET) and TE INVITO A MI FUNERAL (I INVITE YOU TO MY FUNERAL), both of them co-written with Álvaro Becker and advised by Julio Rojas and Coral Cruz. In 2010, he wrote the feature films: DIEZ ANOS Y UN DIA (TEN YEARS AND ONE DAY) and CONSTRUCCION DE UN SONIDO (CONSTRUCTION OF A SOUND). In 2011 he moved to Madrid, where he studied film direction and screenwriting at the Instituto del Cine de Madrid (Cinema Institute of Madrid). There, he made several shorts and wrote and filmed FARO SIN ISLA (LIGHTHOUSE WITHOUT ISLAND), his first feature film, 100% independent, which traveled around different festivals worldwide. EL TRISTE OLOR DE LA CARNE (THE SAD SMELL OF FLESH) was his second feature film. In 2015 he wrote, directed and produced his third film AVE Y NADA. THE OBJECT'S STATEMENTS is his fourth full-length film, of which he is the screenwriter, director and executive producer.