Little Ashes is a  Spanish-British drama film, set against the backdrop of Spain during the 20s and 30s, as three of the era's most creative young talents meet at university and set off on a course to change their world. Luis Buñuel watches helplessly as the friendship between Salvador Dalí and the poet Federico García Lorca develops into a steamy love affair.
In 1922, 18-year old Salvador Dalí (Robert Pattinson) arrives at university in Madrid. The Residencia de Estudiantes, or student residences, is a modern environment which encourages Spain's brightest young minds. Salvador, who is determined to become a great artist, soon catches the attention of the Resi's social elite - poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran) and aspiring filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). Together they form the nucleus of the most modern group in Madrid.
Their private lives become increasingly complex as Federico ignores the advances of devoted friend and writer Magdalena (Marina Gatell), and Salvador himself feels the pull of García Lorca's magnetism. Luis, becoming increasingly isolated by the duo's closeness, decides to move to Paris to fulfill his own artistic ambitions. Meanwhile, Salvador and Federico leave Madrid to spend the summer at the seaside village of Cadaques, at the home of Dalí's family.
Federico finds himself accepted into the Dalí family as he and Salvador grow closer until, one night, their friendship becomes more. Even as they draw closer, their relationship appears doomed. Luis visits them at university and becomes more suspicious and appalled by their apparent closeness.
Dalí finds García Lorca's obsession with him more than he is prepared to handle and moves to Paris. Consumed by the high society and decadence, Dalí is soon entangled with Gala (Arly Jover) a married woman with a penchant for celebrities. When García Lorca visits, he finds his friend is a changed man, in his life and his politics.

Title
The title is taken from Salvador Dalí's 1927-28 painting Cenicitas (Little Ashes). It was originally called The Birth of Venus, before being changed to Sterile Efforts and then finally Cenicitas. It was first displayed on 20 March 1929 in a Madrid exhibition. It was again displayed in his first solo exhibition in Paris in June 1931. The painting is currently in the Dalí collection of the Queen Sofia Art Centre in Madrid.

Background
While it is widely acknowledged that Lorca was infatuated with Dali, for years the artist denied entering into a relationship with Lorca.
Dalí stated: "He was homosexual, as everyone knows, and madly in love with me... He tried to screw me twice... I was extremely annoyed, because I wasn't homosexual, and I wasn't interested in giving in. Besides, it hurts. So nothing came of it."
Writer Philippa Goslett has said:"Having done a huge amount of research, it's clear something happened, no question… When you look at the letters it's clear something more was going on there….It began as a friendship, became more intimate and moved to a physical level but Dalí found it difficult and couldn't carry on. He said they tried to have sex but it hurt, so they couldn't consummate the relationship."
In January 1986, Ian Gibson, who was doing research for Lorca's biography that came out in 1989, was summoned by Dali's friend Antoni Pixtot, the painter, to meet him in Figueres - "At once I was in Madrid and caught the next plane." Gibson writes. "Dali, it transpired, desperately wanted to convince me that his great friend Federico Garcia Lorca had loved him sexually, not merely 'platonically', and to ensure that I made clear in this second volume of my biography of the poet. Despite his appalling physical condition, his difficulty articulating, and his evident despair, he provided me with some astonishing details about that relationship."
In an urgent mixture of Catalan (language) and Castilian, the painter tried to impress upon Gibson how deeply he had loved Lorca, how he'd felt they were soul-mates. Though the desire between them had been mutual, the attempt at consummation had hurt too much to continue, and so they'd decided Lorca would sleep with a female friend of theirs while Dali watched and masturbated from the sidelines -- a kind of "consummation by proxy" -- and Dali indicated this was the beginning of his voyeurism. Ultimately, things had fallen apart between them because Dali had been simply "too scared," and so he'd run off to Paris, Louis Buñuel, and Gala (Dali).
Gibson adds, "This was no question of mere affection. I came away with the clear impression that Dali's friendship with the poet was perceived by him as one of the fundamental experiences in his life."
This was a simple, sad, and very human story he told, and it is precisely this story that is presented in Little Ashes. All the details we know about their relationship come directly from Dalí's own mouth.
"I have to admit I find myself continually frustrated by the mindless, lazy parrottry that passes for 'journalism'." Victormv of worldpress.com writes. "One of the very first online reviews of the film dug up Dali's vintage late-60s doublespeak pull-quote and ran it to indicate Dalí himself denied the story as presented in the film, and further took a quote from Lorca and Dali biographer Ian Gibson out-of-context to indicate that film will trouble historians. It's a lot easier and more fun to quote the bit about "the Divine Dalí's asshole" and claim there's some huge controversy surrounding the version of events as depicted in this film than it is to take a glance at Dalí's own naked, vulnerable deathbed statements on the matter and realize that in summoning a world-class biographer to tell about all this, he was in fact asking for the story to be told. And so Gibson did, in "The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí", and screenwriter Philippa Goslett took up the task from there."

Paul Morrison (born in 1944) is a British film director and screenwriter. He has mainly directed documentaries and drama films. His movie Solomon and Gaenor (1999) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
In 2007, Paul Morrison shot Little Ashes - a film about the life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, poet Federico García Lorca and filmmaker Luis Buñuel. The film was shot mainly in Barcelona and is a Factotum Barcelona, Aria Films, APT Films and Met Film production. The potentially controversial interpretation has been written by British screenwriter Philippa Goslett.

Philippa Goslett (born in 1974) is a British screenwriter. In 2000, she won the Euroscript Screen Story Competition. Her first feature Little Ashes (2009) is being directed by Paul Morrison, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1999 for his film Solomon and Gaenor.

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