is a 1990 Spanish comedy-drama film directed by Carlos Saura and based on the eponymous play by José Sanchís Sinisterra.

The film stars Carmen Maura, Andrés Pajares, and Gabino Diego as travelling players performing for the Republic, who inadvertently find themselves on the nationalist side during the closing months of the Spanish Civil War.

Carmela sings and dances, Paulino reads a poem by Antonio Machado (which reflects Republican patriotic fervour) and plays a tune with his farts.

The final act is a 'tableau vivant' in which Carmela represents justice while Paulino brandishes the republican flag and they sing a song of freedom.

Carmela distracts a republican truck driver by allowing him to paw her, while Paulino and Gustavete steal the fuel.

On the day of the show Carmela has her period and Paulino has an upset stomach from eating a rabbit, which Gustavete, writing on his slate, confirms was a cat.

In a number that exploits all the sexual innuendos the audience cares to imagine, Carmela invites the doctor to insert his thermometer in her.

In Saura's earlier films, allusions to the war and to its consequences were characterized by violence and brutality, and if there was any humour at all it was grim and ironic.

he said, "I would have been incapable a few years ago of treating our war with humour… but now it is different, for sufficient time has passed to adopt a broader perspective, and here there is no doubt that by employing humour it is possible to say things that it would be more difficult, if not impossible, to say in another way".

[5] Saura adapted the play with the help of scriptwriter Rafael Azcona, who had worked with him many times before but with whom he had broken in 1975 before making Cria Cuervos.

[5] This allowed him to follow the journey of Carmela and Paulino during the two days in which they travel from Republican to Nationalist territory, performing their act in both camps.

It also allowed much more scope for the relationship and the characters of Carmela and Paulino to evolve and in relation to the events in which they find themselves caught up.

[5] It also enabled Saura to depict other characters and locations mentioned in the play, in particular Gustavete, the travelling companion of Carmela and Paulino, and the Italian officer and theatre director, Lieutenant Amelio di Ripamonte.