The history of cinema in Galicia seems to have been characterized by a constant questioning of its own existence. In the first Xornadas de Cine (Cinema Encounters) held in Ourense in 1973, the debate on the possibility and potentiality of a future Galician cinema began with the opening statement that ‘O cine galego é a conciencia da súa nada. Xa é algo’ (Galician cinema is the awareness of its own nothingness. And that is already something) (Nogueira 1965: 328). From 1973 – when this statement was made – until the present day cinematic expression in Galicia appears to have developed in fits and starts as a succession of births, deaths and rebirths, or even as a blank slate still to be written on. Those accounts which have taken this approach, however, have often denied or played down the historical value and – to an extent – the continuity of Galician cinema.

Despite the unquestionable frailty of Galician film history it is not difficult to identify projects and events which have signalled innovative or regenerative models in Galician cinema, even if – at times – these events have occurred in apparent isolation from one another. The purpose of this chapter is not so much to lionize those films and film-makers that have brought fame to Galician cinema, but rather to identify and discuss the relationship between the cinematic image in Galicia and the historical conditions which governed its production.