03/02/2023 - The debut film directed by Javier Barbero from Madrid and Martín Guerra from Peru is currently being shot with a cast starring Job Mansilla and Eliza Rycembel

Javier Barbero, from Madrid, and Martín Guerra, originally from Peru and now based in the Spanish capital, are filming their feature film debut, Los bárbaros, in various locations across the city with an international cast including Peruvian actor Job Mansilla (De vuelta al barrio), Polish Eliza Rycembel (Corpus Christi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bartosz Bielenia
interview: Jan Komasa
film profile]) and Spanish Àlex Monner (recently seen in El cover [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and the series La ruta) and Greta Fernández (who recently premiered The Burning Cold [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in Spanish cinemas). The filmmakers are once again working together after directing the short film Los invencibles, whose world premiere took place at the Locarno Film Festival in 2014.

Its plot - written by its directors - features Marco (played by Job Mansilla), a young man who has never been too keen on working and who, sick of several menial jobs, returns to the neighbourhood from which he escaped months ago, this time with the strong conviction of living in his lover's house. But when he returns, nothing will ever be the same. The economic crisis and the real estate bubble are hitting Madrid hard, and he senses that the shipwreck of his youth is approaching. But with the complicity of Sergio, a kind-hearted site supervisor (Àlex Monner), and Céline, a mysterious foreigner (Eliza Rycembel), they find a way to get by: together, they make themselves at home in a building where construction has recently been halted. It is here, in this corpse of financial greed, that they find a refuge of fun and relaxation, while the world as they knew it blows up...

According to the two filmmakers, the film "is a portrait inspired by a group of people we experienced the economic crisis with in Spain around 2008. It shows the spirit of a generation young and naïve enough not to care or even laugh at the lack of expectations that the future offered at that time.” They go on, "we decided to film in Madrid’s suburbs in order to create a portrait of this European capital that escapes the idealised image that one might have of it. It was important for us to contrast the Western Europe that the foreign immigrant comes looking for with what they actually find. We have moved away from the postcard image, but also from the trite portrait of suburbia," they conclude.

Los bárbaros is a film by the Spanish company Pantalla Partida in co-production with the Peruvian companies Lima 9 and El Sueño Eterno Pictures. As a project in development, it took part in the Abycine Lanza, Ventana CineMad and MadridCreaLab laboratories and in the Ibero-American Project Development Course (coordinated by Fundación Carolina, Casa de América, AECID, SGAE and Ibermedia). It also includes the involvement of RTVE and is supported by the Autonomous Community of Madrid and DAFO (Peru).

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)