The Executioner

The Executioner (El verdugo, 1963) — watch online on iFILM, a razor-sharp Spanish dark comedy directed by Luis García Berlanga. A young undertaker marries into the wrong family. His father-in-law is the state executioner, and when the old man retires, the government apartment that comes with the job goes only to his successor.

José Luis signs the paperwork without thinking. Executions in Franco's Spain are rare — or so he tells himself. Then the first summons arrives. Nino Manfredi plays a man who never wanted anything sinister, only a decent place to live, and finds himself trapped by bureaucratic logic with no legal exit.

Berlanga shot the film in 1963 while Francoist censorship was at full force, yet managed to smuggle an anti-capital-punishment argument past the authorities. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at Venice and stands as one of the sharpest political comedies in European cinema. Stream The Executioner (1963) on iFILM.