In watching Buñuel’s film The Young One I was most interested in the role nature plays and the parallels of the natural landscape alongside the relational dynamics of the main characters- the predator and the prey. The story takes place on a remote island cut off from the outside world though tensions around power and race and gender are still ever present on the island and almost amplified by the isolation of these characters. Traver, a Black musician, is running from the corrupt, racist authority of the mainland where he is falsely accused of raping a white woman. Seeking refuge and escape on the island he instead has to confront the very thing he is running from on this lawless landscape at the hands of Miller, the gamekeeper, who preys upon the innocent orphan Evvie. Evvie is naive to the ways of men but navigates her environment confidently and almost fearlessly and barters with Traver in Miller’s absence. She also has ambitions of escaping the island though she doesn’t fully understand the depth of Miller’s exploitation.

The island itself has this duality. Its lush and life giving, but also harsh and punishing. We see its cruelty in the hunting and skinning of animals, in predators consuming prey in the chicken coup, in torrential storms and in the animal trap that clamps down on Traver’s ankle. In this sense nature acts as a mirror showing the cruelty and selfishness that drive human action. Buñuel uses nature not as a passive setting or backdrop but as an active force that exposes the character’s moral failings while still offering moments of freedom and hope which we see when the young priest arrives and tries to restore balance and moral justice. In the end, even though Travel and Evvie leave the island, the idea of freedom is left open ended in that the world beyond the island is still hostile for them both and Miller’s attempt at redemption in freeing Traver and proposing marriage to the Evvie in order to reconcile his sexual exploitation of the young girl reveals itself as self serving.