17/02/2006

Screening in the Panorama sidebar section, El triunfo: The Beat of the Streets [+see also:
trailer
film profile] sees a female director taking on a violent tale about street gangs with soap opera elements. The genre, usually approached by male filmmakers, did not scare actress/editor/director Mireia Ros, who is back behind the camera after her debut feature La Moños (1997), for which she received a Best New Director Goya nomination.

Set in the 1980s in a critical neighbourhood in Barcelona, the film follows a group of people whose current lives are marked by stories of the past and uncomfortable old secrets. The neighbourhood, usually controlled by Gandhi and his old ex-mercenary mates, is now facing stormy days with the Arab and the black communities trying to integrate where there seems to be no place for them. However, Ros' script seems to focus more on family dramas and love rivals than on competing gangs simply fighting for power. That is why the plot suddenly takes on the form of a soap opera, with betrayals and unbearable rage driving the characters towards a tragic ending. "One may say the film is violent, but to me it is an emotional type of violence. All the violence we show is justified by exacerbated feelings and emotions", said Ros, for whom the film is also "a very Latin type of story".

Starring newcomer 17 year-old flamenco dancer Antonio Fernández Montoya "Farruco" - who displays incredibly solid talent despite his young age - El triunfo also includes veteran actors Juan Diego and Ángela Molina, the latter as a woman torn between her maternal role and her sensual instincts, a part that seems to evoke Anna Magnani's character in Pasolini's Mamma Roma.

Set to be released in Spain on March 24, El triunfo: The Beat of the Streets was co-produced by Canonigo Films, Castelao Producciones S.A. and Public Special Events, with the support of ICAM and the participation of TVE.