03/06/2024 - Antonio de la Torre and Bárbara Lennie topline this Movistar Plus+ original, which boasts a screenplay penned by the director himself alongside regular collaborator Rafael Cobos

Alberto Rodríguez, Antonio de la Torre and Bárbara Lennie on the set of Los Tigres (© Julio Vergne)

On 6 May, principal photography got under way for Los Tigres (lit. “The Tigers”), the new film by Seville-born helmer Alberto Rodríguez, an atmospheric character-based thriller written by the filmmaker together with Rafael Cobos, with whom he previously concocted titles of the likes of Marshland [+see also:
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series profile]. The duo’s new feature is toplined by Antonio de la Torre (winner of a Goya Award for The Realm [+see also:
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film profile]. The cast is rounded off by Joaquín Núñez (Goya for Best New Actor for Unit 7 [+see also:
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The synopsis introduces us to Antonio and Estrella (played by de la Torre and Lennie), two siblings with strong links to the sea: he works as a commercial diver, while she studies the seafloor and assists her brother on board the barge he works on. Despite putting their lives on the line every single day, they are in a precarious financial situation, but this could all change when they happen upon a shipment of cocaine hidden in the hull of a cargo ship anchored in the port of Huelva.

The shoot for Los Tigres will continue for nine weeks on location in the province of Huelva, in Algeciras and on sets in the Ciudad de la Luz film studio (Alicante), thus blending together the wilds of nature in Southern Spain and the little-known world of commercial diving. Matalascañas and its beaches, an oil tanker, a tugboat and an oil refinery are some of the settings being used for the land-based shoot and the complex aquatic scenes. These real-life locations will serve to reflect the contrast between the vastness of nature and the industrial world, as well as to showcase the work and the lives of these professionals, a blend of divers, astronauts and plumbers who carry out their work in the most imposing of all surroundings: the ocean.

In the words of Alberto Rodríguez, “Los Tigres talks about the limits on the abilities of an almost amphibious man, someone who is gradually coming to understand that his time has run out and that he is neither special nor different; rather, he’s just like all the rest. He’s someone who has to undergo a transformation in order to understand everyone else and to be able to survive in the world around him, which he doesn’t comprehend – a world outside the water. In the end, the characters will embark on a voyage to a remote and unfathomable place: the seafloor. A journey towards someone so close and yet so unknown to you: your own sister and her past.”

Los Tigres is a Movistar Plus+ original film produced by Koldo Zuazua (Kowalski Films), Juan Moreno and Guillermo Sempere (Feelgood Media), Domingo Corral, Fran Araújo, Manuela Ocón and Guillermo Farré (Movistar Plus+), Alberto Rodríguez, Rafael Cobos (executive producers), Mazagón Films AIE and Jean Labadie (Le Pacte). The feature will be distributed in Spanish cinemas by Buena Vista International and will subsequently be released exclusively on Movistar Plus+. Its international sales are overseen by Film Factory Entertainment.

(Translated from Spanish)