20/05/2025 - The second film by the directors of the series La Mesías will also star musician Guitarricadelafuente and actors Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González and Lola Dueñas

Actress Penélope Cruz (© Dario Caruso/Cineuropa)

La bola negra is the title of the new film by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, who made their feature debut with Holy Camp! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Javier Calvo and Javier Amb…
film profile] and received numerous awards for the series La Mesías [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile] (including Best Director at Séries Mania, following its screenings at San Sebastián and Sundance). The filmmakers revealed their cast yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival. It came as a surprise that the lead role is played by musician Guitarricadelafuente (real name Álvaro Lafuente) who has no previous acting experience, although he did compose a song for the series Cardo, which they produced, and one of his songs appears in an Apple commercial with Pedro Pascal. He stars alongside Miguel Bernardeau (seen in the series Querer [+see also:
series review
trailer
interview: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
series profile]), Carlos González (the series Mariliendre [+see also:
series review
series profile]), Lola Dueñas (winner of the Best Actress award at Cannes along with the cast of Volver [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile], winner of two Goya awards and recipient of the Silver Shell at San Sebastián, who also previously worked on La Mesías) and the great Penélope Cruz (Oscar winner, three-time Goya Award winner, Best Actress Award at Cannes for Volver, Volpi Cup for Parallel Mothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile], among others, and who will also appear next year in The Bride).

La bola negra is inspired by the unfinished work of the same name by Granada poet Federico García Lorca and the play La piedra oscura by Alberto Conejero. It tells the interconnected stories of three gay men across different time periods, whose lives are intimately bound by sexuality and desire, pain and legacy.

According to Javier Ambrossi, “the creative process began with historical research and documentation, which we combined with Alberto Conejero's beautiful literary work. It involves theatrical adaptation, imagination, and introspection to project our identity onto all the storylines.” For Javier Calvo, “writing this film has been an exciting and complex experience. We didn't feel like we were imagining a story, but rather remembering it, almost like unearthing it. Bringing to light characters, a story, dialogues, and a wound that we didn't know existed but that somehow beat inside us. It's a text that touches us deeply and makes us understand why we do what we do.”

Filming will begin in August, with locations in Spain and across Europe. Gris Jordana (Libertad [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Clara Roquet
film profile], La Mesías) will act as director of photography, Roger Bellés as production designer, Eva Leira and Yolanda Serrano as casting directors, and Raül Refree will compose the film’s score. This project, an original film for Movistar Plus+, also marks the first film from Suma Content Films, the dedicated film division of Calvo and Ambrossi's production company, Suma Content. The division is launching after Mi querida señorita, a remake of Jaime de Armiñán's film directed by Fernando González Molina, and El desencanto, the directorial debut of actress Ana Rujas, loosely inspired by Jaime Chávarri's documentary of the same name, which is currently in development.

The international partners of La bola negra will include the French production companies Le Pacte and Goodfellas, which will handle international sales. Jean Labadie, president of Le Pacte, commented: “We are incredibly proud to co-produce this feature film because La Mesías completely won us over and we were very excited to receive the script for the film. We committed immediately, fascinated by its ingenuity, intelligence, and emotion.” And Goodfellas stated: “We were absolutely blown away by La bola negra. It is bold, cinematic, emotional, and visually stunning, one of those films that grabs you from the first scene. This film confirms Ambrossi and Calvo's place among the most essential voices in European cinema today.”

(Translated from Spanish)