Miguel Herrán and Javier Gutiérrez, in a scene from the film.
Film Festival
The film directed by Alberto Rodríguez will be screened on September 16 out of competition
‘Modelo 77’, the latest film directed by Alberto Rodríguez, will be in charge of opening the 70th edition of the Film Festival. It will be screened out of competition on September 16 at the Kursaal gala.
Rodríguez, who once again has the collaboration of his usual screenwriter Rafael Cobos, resorts to a real event, one of the most massive escapes in the history of the Spanish penitentiary, to tell a story of friendship, solidarity and freedom, interpreted in the leading roles by Miguel Herrán and Javier Gutiérrez. The action begins in the year 77 in the Modelo prison in Barcelona, where Manuel, a young accountant awaiting trial for embezzlement, faces a sentence of between 6 and 8 years, a disproportionate punishment for the crime committed. He has Javier Gutiérrez as a cellmate. Both join a group of common or “social” prisoners who fight for their rights and for amnesty at the dawn of democracy in Spain after 40 years of dictatorship.
During filming, the Sevillian filmmaker commented that it is a project he had wanted to do for years, specifically since he finished ‘7 vírgenes’ (2005). Along with Cobos, he has rewritten the script more than twenty times with the story of the Coordination of Prisoners in Struggle (Copel), which promoted a chain of protests in Spanish prisons during the Transition, demanding the same amnesty as that agreed for those imprisoned for criminal reasons. politicians.
Initially they planned to tell about the Model’s escape, which was massive, with 45 people escaping from jail through a sewer that ended in the center of Barcelona. During the research to write the script they discovered the history of Copel and decided to focus on this movement because “it is very difficult for such oppressed people to be able to overcome the fear of repression after so many years of dictatorship and put their fight for freedom on on top of everything, including their own lives and bodies, but that’s how it happened.”
During the filming in Seville, -in an abandoned artillery factory the closed Barcelona prison was recreated and where a part of the film was also filmed-, he reported that «in the Model there was a day when more than two hundred people self-harmed and cut the veins at the same time so that the press could come and denounce that they lacked doctors, hygiene, rights, and that they had to cover the toilet with plastic bottles to prevent the rats from getting out.
La Modelo was in the center of Barcelona and, among other modules, there was one called the ‘invested’ one, where many homosexuals who had been subject to the law of vagrants and thugs were found. Prisoners were also imprisoned for economic crimes who were brutally punished.
Rafael Cobos defines ‘Model 77’ as a film that brings together emotion, the fast-paced, the playful, the critical perspective…, and although it touches on the Transition from one of the most disadvantaged sectors of society, «it is not a film political or pamphleteering but one of our most humane and exciting films.
Co-produced by Atípica Films and Movistar Plus+, the cast, in addition to Herrán and Gutiérrez, is made up of Javier Carroza, Fernando Tejero and Catalina Sopelana. It will arrive in commercial theaters on September 23.
An asidual of the Festival
Ever since he presented his debut film ‘El factor Pilgrim’ (2000), Alberto Rodríguez has been a regular at Zinemaldia. Then the film, co-directed with Santi Amodeo, received a special mention in the New Directors section. From then on, his participation in the contest has been a constant. With ‘El traje’ (2002) he repeated, alone, in the same section. His debut in the Official Selection was with ‘7 vírgenes’ (2005), which earned actor Juan José Ballesta the Silver Shell for best actor. After shooting ‘After’ he returned to Donostia with ‘Grupo 7’, screened at Made in Spain. He returned to the official competition with ‘La isla minima’ (2014), which won the award for best male performance for Javier Gutiérrez and the Jury Prize for best photography for Álex Catalán. Later he returned to compete with ‘The man with a thousand faces’ (2016), where another of the actors, Eduard Fernández, was awarded and a year later he presented the series ‘La peste’ in the Official Section out of competition.