15/09/2010

On August 16, shooting started in Madrid on 23-F, which explores one of the darkest chapters in recent Spanish history. On February 23, 1981, Lieutenant-Colonel Tejero attempted a coup d’état to reinstate a Franco-style dictatorship and bring down the still-young Spanish democracy (the Constitution had only been in force for three years).

Directed by Chema de la Peña, the film will also benefit from the renewed interest in this historical period thanks to the success of Álex de la Iglesia’s A Sad Trumpet Ballad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álex de la Iglesia
film profile] (see review). Shooting will last eight weeks in the Spanish capital, where the team has also been granted special permission to film for two days inside the Chamber of Deputies.

23-F started off as a commission from producers Ignacio and Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson (the latter is also president of the State Film Association – see news). Moreover, it is the first big-screen production to recount the coup d’état, with the help of Joaquín Andújar’s complex screenplay.

The story opens with the taking of Parliament and continues through to the release of the deputies, after seventeen and a half hours which had the Spanish population on tenterhooks. There are several narrative levels; on one side is Tejero and his men in Parliament and, on the other, King Juan Carlos, who, from his office, tries to contain the army and organise the civil forces. Between the two extremes, a complex network is unravelled whose different strands are controlled by Milans del Bosch and General Alfonso Armada.

The film is produced by Lazona Films (which, since it was founded in 2003 has produced films including The Contestant [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the debut feature by Rodrigo Cortés, whose film Buried [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rodrigo Cortés
film profile] has made him a sensation – see news; and is currently handling post-production on Enrique Urbizu’s No Habrá Paz Para los Malvados – see news) with backing from TVE. It will be released on February 23, 2011, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the coup attempt.

(Translated from Spanish)