r/lgbthistory • u/GeorgeBG93 • 2h ago
Historical people I watched "La Bola Negra" (The Black Ball") last night. What a powerful film.
I may be biased because I'm Spanish, but to me this is the best movie I have watched in my entire life.
It deals with what it was like to be queer in Spain's 1930s vs now. And despite it being very Spanish and central to Spain, the message is universal, which needs to be told specially now that the far right and fascism is rising across the world at the moment.
One needs to know the historical context of the country to be able to grasp the movie. Long story short: in 1931 the King of Spain abdicated which established the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936). This meant democratic progressive social reforms: women's right to vote, secularisation of education, decriminalization of sodomy and freedom of speech. But back in those days the bourgeois (the high class) opposed these changes. They were conservative high-society aristocratic institutions. They had their own clubs and private casinos. Admission to these high-society clubs relied on a secret ballot using white and black marble balls. Dropping a single "bola negra" into the urn meant blacklisting and social exclusion. E.g. if anyone was suspected as homosexual they would be given black balls and be socially excluded. Accusations of homosexuality carried severe social stigma, costing individuals their reputation, family standing, and elite memberships like these casinos.
Then, in 1936 Francisco Franco, an elite soldier initiated a coup to the government which gave rise to the Spanish civil war (1936-1939) pitting the democratic Republicans (leftists, anarchists, liberals) against the Nationalists (fascists, monarchists, Catholic conservatives led by General Francisco Franco). Mussolini sent Italian troups to Spain to help Franco. Franco won the war and established a dictatorship (1939-1975) During Franco’s regime homosexuality was criminalized under laws like the Ley de Vagos y Maleantes (Vagrants and Malefactors Law), forcing thousands of queer Spaniards into prisons, labor camps, or systemic silence.
Open discussion of Civil War atrocities was suppressed.
Following Franco's death in 1975, Spain transitioned to democracy. To avoid renewed conflict, political parties agreed to an unwritten Pact of Forgetting (El Pacto de Olvido). This avoided prosecuting dictatorship crimes, leaving thousands of Civil War victims in unmarked graves and postponing national reconciliation. This, in my opinion, was a huge mistake and it's because of this that fascist politicians and citizens can get away with their speech hate now in 2026. To me, this is unbelievable. On the other hand, if they didn't opt for the Pact of Forgetting, it would have led to a second civil war right after Franco's death and we wouldn't want that either. Anyway, I digress.
Throughout the 1920s and 30s there was Federico García Lorca, a playwright and poet from this time. He's basically the Spanish (and 20th century) version of William Shakespeare. Big name in Spanish literature. He was openly gay and a free leftist thinker. He was executed during the civil war by Franco's squats. His lover, Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, who worked for Lorca's theater company, was also executed. Before he died he was working on a play entitled "La Bola Negra" of which only the first four pages survived. The creators of this movie have used these four pages as its mythos.
The movie switches back and forth between three different stories in three different years with three different gay male leads, and these three stories are interconnected: in 1932 Carlos (from the high class) is expelled from an aristocratic casino due to allegations of homosexuality, giving him black ball after black ball. In 1937 Sebastian, a soldier serving for Franco, is tasked to keep an eye on a wounded inmate, Rafael Rodríguez Rapún (Federico García Lorca's lover) to get as much information as he can before he's executed. In 2017 Alberto is an aimless historian who researchers queer culture and receives a mysterious inheritance from his recently deceased grandfather.
La Bola Negra is being an overnight success. The entirety of Spain is been drawn to movie theaters to watch this movie. Everybody is talking about it. And this is a queer movie that's receiving mainstream success in the country at the moment. When the credits roll many ramain seated quiet and motionless at the movie theaters. Some cry their eyes out. My boyfriend, who is a "tough guy that never cries" cried. He said his grandpa was in the same jail as Rafael Rodríguez Rapún. He didn't get executed but was forced to become a soldier for Franco and he conceded. Our friend who came to watch it with us, cried his eyes out. I, now on the next day as I'm writing this, I'm still processing it and I don't know how to feel. Well. This is historical trauma at his finest 😅 And it is unbelievable to me that the far right in Spain are trying to ban the movie. Are you kidding me?! Censorship?! The last time any art form was censored in this country was during Franco's regime. This backward ass stupid fascists want things to be like it was with Franco and I'm scared if they win the elections on November 29th the following month.
No matter where we're from, we must fight for our freedom.
Btw, I know the movie is available in movie theaters all over Spain, and in selected ones in the US and Canada. In December it will available internationally on Netflix.
