13/02/2003 - Eloy de La Iglesia presents his film about the secret life of a gay man in love with an illegal Bulgarian immigrant

Ten years after it was published, Daniele Menicutti’s eponymous novel was finally made into a film, Los novios bulgaros (The Bulgarian Lovers) by one of contemporary Spanish cinema’s, 60-year-old Basque director, Eloy de La Iglesia, and the subject of a major retrospective at the 1996 San Sebastian film festival. He is best known for his sapient mix of metaphor and pornography in telling the story of Spain under General Franco’s regime. “I don’t think much has changed in Spain. We have new infrastructure, democracy but the Spanish spirit is unchanged,” said the director.

Los novios bulgaros is the story of a gay man who falls in love with an unscupulous Bulgarian illegal immigrant. “You could hardly say that this is an homosexual film: when you watch Casablanca your’ re not sitting there thinking: ‘this is a heterosexual story’ “.

Fernando Guillén Cuervo is the star of de la Iglesia’s film. He also worked with the director on the screenplay and co-produced it through his Cuervo Films, in partnership with Altube Fileak, Cartel and Conexión Sur).
“We are a little big film family,” said Cuervo, “and we are delighted to be here in Berlin to present this film ( Panorama – Editor’s note). This is not a film that targets a specific audience. We set this story about immigration in Spain, but we could just as well have set it anywhere.”

(Translated from Italian)