20/01/2023 - Comedians such as Julián López, Miren Ibarguren and Raúl Cimas topline a cast replete with well-known faces in this romp about a forty-something going back to university

David Galán Galindo (best known for his Netflix film Unknown Origins [+see also:
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film profile], his fourth feature as a director and screenwriter (in this case, he has penned the script in tandem with Fernando Hernández Barral), with a cast including names such as Julián López (Operación Camarón [+see also:
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“Getting old is inevitable; becoming mature is optional” is the motto adhered to by Alber (played by Julián López), a rapper who enrols in university at the not-so-tender age of 44 in order to win a bet with his father. If he doesn’t pass all of his subjects, he will have to kiss goodbye to “this rap nonsense” forever. Once in the classroom, he reunites with Amaia (Miren Ibarguren), a radio DJ and teacher there, and discovers that something important has been missing from his life: love.

David Galán Galindo began directing short films, such as Curvas (2012) and Push Up (2013), with which he reaped multiple awards. He has also been involved in collaborative movies such as Al final todos mueren (2013), combining his film projects with his work as a screenwriter for television. In 2016, he published his first novel, Unknown Origins, which he would adapt for the big screen three years later under the same name, garnering three Goya nominations, including for Best Adapted Screenplay; it was also in the running for Best Film at the Feroz Awards. His Gora Automatikoa (2021) was nominated for the Goya Award for Best Animated Film, and he recently published the comic Sargento Resines.

“My aim with Matusalén is to make the most entertaining film that you could ever imagine, where comedy reigns supreme over everything else. No dramedies, no post-comedy: this is comedy that makes you roar with laughter, a genre it appears we are scared of making nowadays – but it doesn’t scare me,” remarked the filmmaker. “Another one of my interests is bringing together not two, not three, but four generations of actors from Spanish cinema. I am thinking particularly of titles like Amanece que no es poco and Some Time After [+see also:
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film profile] by José Luis Cuerda, but even more so all the films by Luis García-Berlanga, who made his ensemble features into a real art form. They all had casts spanning different generations, with actors who inevitably take over from one another and whom it is a pleasure to bring together on one single project. And our references with this movie are comedies of the likes of National Lampoon’s Animal House, American Pie, Rushmore, Grease, Legally Blonde and, especially, 21 Jump Street (plus 22 Jump Street),” he summed up.

Matusalén, which is being shot on location in Madrid until the end of January, is a production by Vuelta a la universidad AIE and Enrique Cerezo PC. It is being made in conjunction with TVE.

(Translated from Spanish)