Las Hurdes (Land Without Bread) (1933)

Today's film is Las Hurdes.  Is this the world's first mockumentary?

The "hurdanos" live in an isolated region of Spain.  They have a great tradition of cutting off upside-down roosters' heads for reasons that are unclear to me.  Further in the valley, bread is unheard of except for those children that we are watching eat bread.  The children must eat the bread in view of their teacher, otherwise their parents will take it away from them.  As a mother, how dare those children eat bread.  Who do they think they are?

Look at these jerks eating bread like they're all that.

The hurdanos are a resourceful people, walking for miles to gather leaves to sleep on.  The area is rich with walnut, olive and cherry trees, and yet nothing grows here because the soil is bad and that's why everyone is starving. Riiighttt.  They almost never eat meat, except when this happens -*goat randomly falls off cliff*.

Also, everyone drinks dirty river water.  Everyone has goiter, dysentery and malaria, just not at the same time.  Even though no one eats, they still walk 50 miles to find work.  Also, when someone dies, they walk for days to the cemetery since there is not one nearby.  How hard is it to dig some holes in the ground?  That was one of the most absurd parts.

This mockumentary was told in a serious tone, and yet everything about it was absurd and unbelievable.  I can't call it comedy even though it was absurd because it wasn't funny.  I will give this a 5/10.