Who was Carlos Saura? Iconic Spanish director dead at 91

Carlos Saura started his career in 1955 making documentary shorts. He gained international prominence when his first feature-length film premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 1960.

Saura quickly switched to films encoded with metaphors and symbolism. In 1966, he was thrust into the international spotlight when his film La Caza won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. By the 1970s, Saura was the best known filmmaker working in Spain.

He won Special Jury Awards for La Prima Angélica (1973) and Cría Cuervos (1975) in Cannes; and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film nomination in 1979 for Mama Cumple 100 Años.

Born in Huesca in northeastern Spain on January 4, 1932, Saura was just four years old when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936.

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“For me, the cinema is a type of drug, an obsession,” Saura once said. “What I like is that it is a solitary pleasure.”

Saura had seven children, including a son by Chaplin and a daughter by his third wife, Spanish actress Eulalia Ramon.