José Corbacho brings the hit stage show Burundanga to the big screen
- Adriana Torrebejano, Carol Rovira, Marcel Borràs, Francesc Ferrer, Jordi Sánchez, Sílvia Abril and Santi Millán topline this comedy penned by Jordi Galceran
Burundanga is the new film by comedian José Corbacho (winner of the Goya Award for Best New Director for his feature Tapas, which he directed with Juan Cruz, and subsequently helming movies such as Cowards [+see also:
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film profile], as well as the series Un nuevo amanecer, plus the comedy shows Homo Zapping and Palomitas), based on an original work by Jordi Galceran. The film stars Adriana Torrebejano (whom we saw recently in Coartadas and Mikaela [+see also:
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film profile], as well as in the series Atasco 2 and Red Queen 2: Loba negra), Carol Rovira (the series Alpha Males, Perdiendo el juicio and When You Least Expect It), Marcel Borràs (the series La canción [+see also:
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According to the team behind the feature, it’s a romantic comedy and, simultaneously, a story about losers: characters who are walking disasters, but with whom you fall in love at first sight. As the screenplay (written by Olatz Arroyo, Marta Sánchez and Galceran himself) throws up twist after twist at breakneck speed, each new situation trumps the last.
The film tells of how Berta finds out that she is pregnant and has no idea what to do, because she has doubts about whether her partner, Manel, loves her. After getting advice from her friend Sílvia, she decides to give him the “truth drug”. When it takes effect, Manel confirms that he’s in love with her, but he also confesses something much more unexpected: that he is part of a terrorist cell.
With this film adaptation of Burundanga, José Corbacho is making, in his words, “a classic comedy in which I intend to retain and show the utmost respect for the pacing and the exceptional dialogues from the original stage play”. The shoot for the movie, which is now in post-production, took place on location in various parts of Catalonia last year.
2011 saw the first performance of the stage-play version of Burundanga, which fused drugs, pregnancies and terrorism. It was the first work brave enough to broach the end of the terrorist group ETA in an entertaining way, thus normalising recent Spanish history. The stage version, directed by Gabriel Olivares, has been one of the most popular plays on the Madrid listings over the last few years, and its one-liners have been lapped up by more than one million theatregoers.
Burundanga is a production by Minoria Absoluta, Kowalski Films, Feelgood Media and Simulacre AIE, which boasts the involvement of 3Cat and Prime Video as well as support from ICEC and the ICAA. The Spanish theatrical distribution is being handled by Buena Vista and its international sales by Film Factory.
(Translated from Spanish)
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