La bola negra plot recap, spoiler-light
The film La bola negra weaves together the intertwined lives of three men across three distinct historical eras, bound by sexuality, desire, pain, and legacy. In 1932 Granada, Carlos faces rejection from an exclusive social club after a blackball ballot rooted in rumours regarding his homosexuality. Despite pressure from his father to deny the claims and his mother advising him to leave for Madrid, Carlos confronts the committee before a mob storms the building during the Sanjurjada.
In 1937, amidst the Spanish Civil War, young village trumpeter Sebastián survives an air raid that kills his mother and is forced into the Nationalist ranks. Assigned to guard wounded Republican prisoner and former Lorca lover Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, Sebastián forms a deep emotional and physical bond while being introduced to poetry and queer role models. Before facing execution, Rafael asks Sebastián to rescue the manuscript of La bola negra. Decades later in 2017, historian Alberto inherits an estate from his estranged grandfather, eventually discovering that part of his bequest is the lost Lorca manuscript.
What happens at the end of La bola negra?
Key takeaways
- In 1932 Granada, Carlos faces social ruin due to rumours about his sexuality before fleeing a destroyed casino into a snowy mountain.
