'Land Without Bread'

On the whole, Land Without Bread is the first ever documentary, directed by Luis Bunuel.

It depicts a very poor mountainous area in Spain called Las Hurdes.

As a fan of documentaries, I've always wondered how much license a documentarian takes with his subject matter. We know that in some -- like King of Kong -- that the filmmaker edited pieces to create a false tension.

Watching Land Without Bread, you assume there are probably many strains of the truth in order to make the area seem more desolate and desitute than it really was. According to most, it was an exaggeration.

Furthermore, we learn that the donkey was was allegedly killed due to being swarmed by bees after hives fell and smashed to the ground, was actually covered with honey to make the death take place.

Also, they talk about the mountain goats that frequently are eaten by the people after falling off a mountain. We then see what appears to be a goat carcass falling down a rocky mountain.

Bunuel actually had the goat killed and tossed down the mountain.

There more disturbing parts. The little girl in the street dying. The baby dying ... and Bunuel showing the lifeless body. There's also the footage of the so-called "idiots."

It's disturbing because you never get the idea that any of it is real. I'm not saying there weren't backwards places in the 1930s, but this was civilization Spain and a world on the very verge of modern machination. But we couldn't teach these people to hunt or garden?