10/05/2024 - The trio of award-winning actors are currently filming between Cádiz and Madrid Albert Pintó's thriller about friendship and drug trafficking

(l-r) Actor Karra Elejalde, director Albert Pintó, actor Jesús Carroza and actor Luis Zahera on the set of Tierra de nadie (© Marina Caputo)

Albert Pintó is currently filming Barren Land, between Cádiz and Madrid. The suspense film stars Luis Zahera (Goya winner for The Realm [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
interview: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Isabel P…
film profile] and The Beasts [+see also:
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interview: Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Isabe…
film profile], in Spanish cinemas now with Birds Flying East [+see also:
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trailer
film profile], for which he received an award at Malaga Film Festival.), Karra Elejalde (Goya for Even the Rain [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile] and Spanish Affair [+see also:
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trailer
film profile], who we saw last year in Love and Revolution [+see also:
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film profile]).

The film is written by Fernando Navarro (Saturn Return [+see also:
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interview: Isaki Lacuesta
film profile], Verónica [+see also:
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interview: Paco Plaza
film profile]) and tells the story of three friends. Mateo el Gallego, a heroic civil guard (played by Luis Zahera), Juan El Antxale, unemployed and a fisherman turned drug dealer due to bad luck (Karra Elejalde), and Benito el Yeye, a resigned and intelligent bailiff (Jesús Carroza), always halfway between the law and crime. Three men caught between the abandonment of institutions, the violent and unstoppable rise of drug trafficking in the province of Cadiz and the dangerous increase in social discontent: a tinderbox that will test their trust.

According to the director, Albert Pintó, "Barren Land is an ode to friendship, a story centred around three characters who have taken very different paths due to the situation that has been going on for a long time in the south of Spain. We hope that the film will reflect how all this is affecting the lives of the people who live here, their family structures and their way of life.”

The filmography of Albert Pintó (Barcelona, 1985) always invokes tension, suspense and emotion. His debut, the cult film directed with Caye Casas Killing God [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2017), won the Audience Award for Best Film at Sitges Film Festival. This was followed by 32 Malasaña Street [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the third highest-grossing Spanish film in 2020, and Nowhere, a spectacular and excessive survival film starring Anna Castillo, which has broken Netflix world records as the most watched non-English language title (series or feature film) on the planet in 2023. He has also directed two of the world’s biggest Spanish series, Money Heist and its spin-off Berlin, which he is also executive producer of.

Barren Land is produced by the Spanish companies Esto también pasará, Glow, En tierra de nadie Films AIE and la mexicana SDB Films. It includes the participation of Prime Video, RTVE, Canal Sur, Mogambo and Crea SGR, in association with Film Factory, its sales agent, and is supported by ICAA. It will be distributed in Spain by Sony Pictures.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)