On Monday 23 September, the shoot kicked off in Madrid for Las delicias del jardín [lit. “The Delights of the Garden”], the 24th film helmed by Fernando Colomo (whose latest releases were the comedies Cuidado con lo que deseas [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], following a long career that, in the early years, saw him take part in the Venice competition with 1982's Estoy en crisis; he was subsequently invited to the Goyas with nominations for 1988's Going Down in Morocco and 1998's Barbaric Years), which sees Carmen Machi (a Goya Award winner for Spanish Affair [+lire aussi :
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fiche série]), Antonio Resines (a fellow Goya winner for Lucky Star, and glimpsed this year in Padre no hay más que uno 4: campanas de boda [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] and Cuerpo escombro), María Hervás (the series Alpha Males, Políticamente incorrectos), Luis Bermejo (recently appearing in Un amor [+lire aussi :
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interview : Isabel Coixet
fiche film] and Norbert(a)), Brays Efe (the series Paquita Salas, The Fantastic Golem Affairs [+lire aussi :
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interview : Burnin’ Percebes
fiche film]), Pablo Colomo and the director himself among the cast. Here, he rekindles the humorous, autobiographical tone that he used previously in his two favourite films, Skyline (1983) and Isla bonita [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (2015). “With this new movie, I intend to repeat that experience while banking on a more well-rounded team, but also while attempting to preserve the most important thing, which is freedom when it comes to tackling the screenplay and the ability to improvise with characters I know very well,” he remarked.

The plot, co-written by Colomo and his son Pablo (who also acts in the feature), sets out the views that they each have on politics, feminism, love, romantic relationships, and the complexity of the art world and its speculative market. According to the helmer, “I want the dialogue to benefit from a certain freedom, always in search of the truth and laying bare the characters’ contradictions using dry humour.”

Thus, it tells of how Fermín (played by Fernando Colomo), a seasoned and renowned abstract painter, is far from having the time of his life. The crisis he is enduring is not only financial in nature, as he has split up with his wife and has been forced to live in the workshop of his artist friend Javier de Juan, located in an underground garage in central Madrid. But Fermín is hiding the fact he has an unsteady hand, which makes it difficult for him to continue painting. This is why he rejects the suggestion by his gallery owner and ex-wife Pepa (played by Carmen Machi) to enter a lucrative competition to make a new version of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights. However, two events will cause him to change his mind: the notification that his bank accounts and cards have been frozen, and the appearance of his son Pablo, a painter just like him, albeit a figurative one, who rocks up from India and parks his camper van in his father’s house-cum-garage. And so, father and son will have to put their artistic and personal differences behind them if they want to join forces to make a modern version of Bosch’s masterpiece.

Las delicias del jardín is a production by Comba Films (Colomo’s own company) and Telespan 2000, part of the Squirrel Media group, which boasts the involvement of Prime Video and has received development support from the CAM. Vértice 360 will distribute it in Spanish theatres.