Daniel Calparsoro, a director who has made a crucial contribution to contemporary Spanish and Basque cinema, has provoked strong reactions from the critics. Reductively dismissed as works of crude violence by those lamenting a 'lost golden age' of Spanish filmmaking, Calparsoro’s films in fact reveal a more complex interaction with trends and traditions in both Spanish and Hollywood cinema. This book is the first full-length study of the director’s work, from his early social-realist films set in the Basque Country to his later forays into the genres of the war and horror. It offers an in-depth film-by-film analysis while simultaneously exploring the director’s position in the contemporary Spanish context, the tension between directors and critics and the question of national cinema in an area – the Basque Country – of heightened national and regional sensitivities.