Over the past decade Spanish-language cinema has established itself beside Spanish and Latin American cinema, and Morir en San Hilario is a good example of these new flexible collaborations rather than strict transnational co-productions. Billed as a comedy, the film could also be described as a variation on the road film, a circular journey to utopia, a Spanish village/pueblo film and a twenty-first-century 'Ars moriendi' developing the topos of homo viator. This is not a frequent combination to be found on cinema screens, and Laura Mañà's gamble was to integrate all these ingredients and create a fable which reflects on life and death. She does this through comedy, exaggerations, parody and a narrative style identified as magic realism. Her originality, however, overlaps with the lasting legacy of the fifteenth-century Castilian soldier-poet Jorge Manrique (c. 1440-1479) and his 'Stanzas Written upon the Death of His Father', a landmark of Spanish literature. [Author's note: Studies in European Cinema's editorial policy is to publish quotations in English, if necessary placing original quotations in footnotes. Keywords-Laura Mañà-Morir en San Hilario-road film-homo viator-Jorge Manrique-meditation on death-magical realism On 15 August 2006, The Observer film critic wrote, Laura Mana's To Die in San Hilario is a heavy-handed Spanish comedy in which the inhabitants of an impoverished small town, famous for its beautiful cemetery, prepare to receive a rich, elderly painter who plans to be buried there. Unfortunately, he croaks on the train two stations up the line and, through a series of misunderstandings, his place is taken by a fugitive gangster with a sackful of loot. The costumes and the steam train suggest the setting is some time between 1930 and 1970, but there's no hint of anything troubling going on elsewhere in the country. (French 2006: n.p., original formatting) This was the week of the film's UK release when a similar review was published in The Guardian two days previously (Bradshaw 2006: n.p.), but there is much more to this film than being a Spanish comedy, whether failed or not. The film actually transcends national boundaries and specificities through its locations, collaborators and the issues it raises. 1 It also transcends genres and could be described as a variation on the road film, a circular journey to Utopia, a Spanish village/pueblo film and a twenty-1 This film is an excellent example of Spanish-language cinema/Cine en Español, as identified in Bentley (2008: 313-14, 349-51). For the production details of this Spanish-language film funded by Spanish organizations and filmed in northwest Argentina, see Jaafar