Do You Hear the Dogs Barking? (Spanish: ¿No oyes ladrar los perros?), also known as Ignacio, is a 1975 Mexican drama film directed by François Reichenbach, based on the short story of the same name by Juan Rulfo, and starring Ahui Camacho, Aurora Clavel, Ana de Sade, Tamara Garina, and Salvador Gomez. Vangelis composed the film's score.
The film tells the story of a man (Salvador Sanchez) carrying his Delicate and Sickly son Ignacio (Camacho) on his back to Mexico City in the hopes of finding a doctor who can treat his son's illness. Along the way, he tells the boy stories about his potential future to keep his spirits up. The story of the father's journey is regularly intercut with Imagine Spots about the adult Ignacio and his struggles in his future life.
Do You Hear the Dogs Troping?
- Abled in the Adaptation: Ignacio's father in the source material is slowly going both deaf and blind, while in the film he shows no signs of either.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Ignacio in the short story is a petty criminal estranged from his father, while his film counterpart is on good terms with said father and shows no criminal tendencies.
- Age Lift: In the short story, Ignacio is an adult man and his father is in his elder years. In the film, Ignacio is a child of about 10, with his father aged down likewise.
- Delicate and Sickly: Ignacio is suffering from a terminal illness, prompting his father to embark on a journey to find a doctor, one which the boy does not survive.
- Downer Ending: Ignacio dies in his father's arms, to the sound of the latter's agonized cries.
- Imagine Spot: The journey of Ignacio and his father is intercut with various vignettes showing the former's potential future as a young man dealing with the struggles of life in modern-day Mexico City.
- Literary Allusion Title: The title is an allusion to a Mexican folk tale which tells of how dogs once were once able to speak, but misbehaved and as punishment lost said ability.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Parts of the film's score, including the main theme, re-appear in Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, with said main theme accompanying a sequence in episode 12 ("Encyclopedia Galactica") describing a potential first contact scenario as well as playing over the end credits of episode 4 ("One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue").
