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PRODUCTION Spain / Portugal

Benito Zambrano putting the finishing touches to the thriller Out in the Open

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- Luis Tosar and Luis Callejo star in the new film by the director of Solas, which was shot last summer in Granada and is currently in post-production

Benito Zambrano putting the finishing touches to the thriller Out in the Open
Luis Tosar in Out in the Open (© Lucía Garré)

The shoot for Out in the Open [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benito Zambrano
film profile
]
by Benito Zambrano (Lebrija, Seville, 1965) took place in July and August 2018 on the high plateau of Granada. It is the director’s fourth feature-length fiction film, following successes such as Solas (which won the Audience Award in the Panorama section of the 1999 Berlinale, scooped five Goya Awards the following year, including Best New Director, and grossed €3.5 million after being seen by almost one million viewers) and The Sleeping Voice [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(which picked up three Goya Awards and grossed more than €2 million). The cast is headed up by Luis Tosar, Luis Callejo, Vicente Romero, Manolo Caro, Kándido Uranga and Jaime López (a child actor who rose to prominence in Food and Shelter [+see also:
trailer
interview: Juan Miguel del Castillo
film profile
]
), and standing out among the crew are cinematographer Pau Esteve (winner of a Goya Award for his work on Cannibal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Manuel Martín Cuenca
film profile
]
by Manuel Martín Cuenca), editor Nacho Ruíz Capillas (Goya Award for The Others by Alejandro Amenábar) and art director Curru Garabal (The Tribe [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
).

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The film is based on the book of the same name by Extremaduran writer Jesús Carrasco (European Union Prize for Literature in 2016). The screenplay, penned by Pablo and Daniel Remón, tells the story of a kid who has run away from his town. As he crouches, ensconced deep in his hiding place, he hears the yells of the men who are out looking for him. Once the search party has passed, what lies before him is a never-ending, barren plain that he will have to cross if he wants to get away from the hell he has been fleeing once and for all. As he is stalked by his pursuers, who work for the town’s bailiff, he will cross paths with a shepherd who offers to protect him, and from that moment on, nothing will be the same again for either of them.

According to Benito Zambrano, what he saw in this novel, set during the post-war years in Spain, was “the chance to talk about those in power, who then use that power willy-nilly with no mercy or compassion. But in that poor, illiterate and miserable environment, where people are used to suffering, there are still heroes that spring up from time to time, who still fight for their dignity and refuse to submit.”

Out in the Open, a thriller imbued with a western spirit, is being produced by Juan Gordon and Pedro Uriol, of Morena Films, in co-production with Marta Velasco, of Andalusian company Áralan Films, and Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes. It was supported by the ICAA, and boasts the involvement of RTVE and Movistar Plus+. Its international sales are handled by The Match Factory, and its Spanish distribution will be managed from autumn 2019 onwards by A Contracorriente Films, after it takes part in a major festival.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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