Rough Winds

Rough Winds
Rough Winds
	Theatrical release poster
Spanish	Los aires difíciles
Directed by	Gerardo Herrero
Screenplay by	Ángeles González-Sinde; Alberto Macías;
Based on	Los aires difíciles; by Almudena Grandes
Produced by	Gerardo Herrero; Pancho Casal; Antonio P. Pérez;
Starring	José Luis García Pérez; Cuca Escribano; Roberto Enríquez; Alberto Jiménez; Carmen Elías; Andrés Gertrúdix; Antonio Dechent; Pilar Castro;
Cinematography	Alfredo F. Mayo
Edited by	Carmen Frías; Berta Frías;
Music by	Lucio Godoy
Production; companies	Tornasol Films; Continental Producciones; Maestranza Films;
Distributed by	Alta Classics
Release dates	18 March 2006 (Málaga); 24 March 2006 (Spain);
Country	Spain
Language	Spanish

Rough Winds (Spanish: Los aires difíciles) is a 2006 Spanish melodrama film directed by Gerardo Herrero adapting the novel Los aires difíciles by Almudena Grandes. It features José Luis García Pérez, Cuca Escribano and Carmen Elías.

Plot

After surviving a shipwreck, Juan Olmedo seeks solace and redress together with his brother Alfonso (a mentally handicapped person) and his niece Tamara in an Andalusian village in the Atlantic coast of the province of Cádiz, seeking to overcome the death of Charo (Juan's child love, wife of his brother Damián, and Juan's lover) in a traffic collision. He develops a bond and sexual relationship with the maid, the lively Maribel, while Panrico (Maribel's former partner) and Sara (Juan's neighbor and Maribel's friend) stay aloof.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Cast

José Luis García Pérez as Juan^[1]
Cuca Escribano [es] as Maribel^[1]
Carmen Elías as Sara^[5]
Roberto Enríquez as Damián^[4]
Antonio Dechent as Panrico^[1]
Andrés Gertrúdix as Alfonso^[1]
Pilar Castro as Charo^[1]
Alberto Jiménez^[1]
Natalia Sánchez as Charo (child)^[1]

Production

An adaptation of the novel Los vientos difíciles by Almudena Grandes, the screenplay was penned by Ángeles González-Sinde and Alberto Macías.^[6] The film is a Tornasol Films, Continental Producciones and Maestranza Films production.^[7] Shooting locations included Zahara de los Atunes, Barbate and Madrid.^[8]^[5]

Release

The film was presented at the 9th Málaga Film Festival, screened as part of the festival's main competition.^[9] Distributed by Alta Classics,^[1] the film was theatrically released in Spain on 24 March 2006.^[10]

Reception

Fernando Méndez-Leite of Fotogramas scored a 4 out 5 stars rating, underscoring Rough Winds to be a film "for fans of character-driven and sentimental films", drawing out the design and the performance by Carmen Elías as the best thing about the film.^[10]

Jonathan Holland of Variety presented the film as "skillfully-handled but—given its subject—passionless drama", dragged by a "bland" performance by José Luis García Pérez, otherwise highlighting Cuca Escribano's as the standout performance.^[1]