03/03/2025 - Marián Álvarez, Israel Elejalde, Juan Diego Botto and Natalia Reyes star in a film co-written by the director alongside Borja Cobeaga and sold internationally by Film Factory

(l-r) Screenwriter Borja Cobeaga, actors Juan Diego Botto and Israel Elejalde, actresses Marián Álvarez and Natalia Reyes and director Víctor García León (© Rafa Martínez Calle)

On 10 February, shooting began in Madrid on Better Class, a new feature film by Víctor García León, director of films such as Más pena que Gloria (for which he received a Goya nomination for Best New Director), Vete de mí (Silver Shell for Best Actor at San Sebastián) and Selfie [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Víctor García León
film profile], among others.

Its lead actors are Marián Álvarez (winner of the Goya award for Wounded [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fernando Franco
film profile], last year in the Netflix series 1992 [+see also:
trailer
series profile]) and Israel Elejalde (Magical Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Vermut
film profile], Parallel Mothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile]). The cast is completed by Juan Diego Botto (in his new collaboration with the filmmaker after starring in his films Vete de mí and The Europeans, and recently seen in The Room Next Door [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Natalia Reyes (the Colombian actress who has appeared in Birds of Passage [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Pilar Castro (recently in Piggy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlota Pereda
film profile]) and the young newcomer Suso Nanclares.

The plot introduces Alicia and Gonzalo, a middle-class couple who find themselves with the opportunity to enrol their son, Fer, in an elite secular school. For these parents, it means raising their heads above the parapet into the upper class—new friendships, higher incomes, countless advantages. They claim they are doing it for their son. In this marvellous contradiction between fears and moral principles, the couple's aspirations will sweep away what, until then, they believed to be indisputable.

Written by the director himself, alongside Borja Cobeaga (nominated four times for the Goya for films such as Negociador [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and nominated for an Oscar for the short film Éramos pocos), according to García León, “Better Class is a story that explores our aspirations, insecurities and miseries. The protagonists are afraid for their children or, rather, afraid that they won't become what they should, afraid of what they are, afraid of what they might become... And, eventually, parenthood forces you to confront the fact that, sometimes, our fears outweigh our principles.” 

For its producers, “this is the opportunity to work with Víctor García León and Borja Cobeaga, two filmmakers who enjoy writing and reflecting on contradictions—both their own and those of others—something that we also find very interesting. In this case, children’s education as a metaphor for aspirations, a social springboard, and those good intentions that sometimes remain just that: good intentions. We felt that the time was right to address this issue in cinema.”

Better Class, one of the projects selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market at last year's Venice Film Festival, is a production from Marisa Fernández Armenteros for Buenapinta Media, Nahikari Ipiña for Sayaka Producciones, Sandra Hermida for Colosé Producciones, Eneko Lizarraga for Think Studio and Altas Capacidades Película A.I.E. in co-production with Santiago López for Cimarrón (a company of The Mediapro Studio). It includes the participation of RTVE, Movistar Plus+, Orange and funding from the ICAA, the Community of Madrid and Madrid City Council. Film Factory Entertainment will manage its international sales and it will be distributed in Spain by Bteam Pictures.

(Translated from Spanish)