Olea, Pedro

b. 1938, Bilbao

   Filmmaker and producer Olea's work veers between the commercial and the art cinema, with a long-standing career in television. His film Pim, pam, pum, …fuego (Ready, Aim…Fire!) (1975), started the trend of political melodramas dealing with the postwar years. In the late 1970s he joined the Basque cinema movement: Akelarre (The Witches Sabbath) (1983), was one of the first films subsidized by the autonomous government. His talent for political parable and atmospheric period reconstruction already manifest in his adaptation of Galdos" novel, Tormento (Torment) (1974), reappears in El maestro de esgrima (The Fencing Master) (1992), based on Arturo Pérez Reverte's novel, which was nominated for an Oscar.

   See also: Basque culture; film and cinema

   Further reading

   - Angulo, J., Heredero, C.F. and Rebordinos, J.L. (eds) (1993), Un cineasta llamado Pedro Olea, San Sebastián: Filmoteca Vasca (an informative monograph containing an interview with the filmmaker).

   - Martínez Torres, A., (ed.) (1984) Spanish Cinema: 1896-1983, Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura (a good historical overview, particularly of the period 1967–83 ).

   XON DE ROS