Director Rafael Cobos, whose film The Left-Handed Son won the 2022 Cannes Best Short Film Award, has just given the world premiere of his feature film debut Golpes, which could see him named one of Spain’s major new directors.
Known as a co-writer with Alberto Rodriguez, he co-wrote the 2014 Goya Best Picture winner Marshland and Movistar Plus’ first major series The Plague in 2017, both of which were set in or near Cobos’ hometown of Seville, to which he returns for Golpes. Starring three-time Goya Award winner Luis Tosar (Mondays in the Sun, Take My Eyes, Cell 211), the film was produced by Vaca Films’ Borja Pena and Emma Lustres (Cell 211, Gangs of Galicia) in collaboration with France’s Playtime, part of the Vuelta Group, which also handles global distribution.
“Golpes” is set in the summer of 1982, seven years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, and as Spain hurtles toward a modern democratic future.
Migueli escapes from prison and gathers his former comrades to carry out a series of daring heists. The person approaching him is his own brother, who has become a police officer and shares his fate with the victors of the Spanish Civil War.
Golpes, written by Cobos and Fernando Navarro (Saturn Return, Veronica), is based on a notable Spanish subgenre of so-called quinqui films. Think of Carlos Saura’s 1981 Berlin Golden Bear-winning film Deprisa, Deprisa, or Eloy de la Iglesia’s 1980 Navajeros, about a marginalized working-class criminal. Robbery, police brutality, risqué behavior, heroin abuse, a vague desire for freedom, and an instinctive contempt for authority and middle-class conventions.
Music plays an important role in “Deprisa, Deprisa,” including the brave flamenco pop anthem “Me quedo contigo.” But “Golpes” goes on its own path in this and other directions as well. “It gives heart and dignity to every ‘quinqui’,” wrote Luis Martínez in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo this week.
When four delinquent friends visit Madrid’s Cerro de los Ángeles monument in “Deprisa, Deprisa,” they have no idea how bullet holes from the Spanish Civil War got there.
In contrast, Migueli (Jesus Caroza, “The Seven Virgins,” “Offworld”) is released from prison with unfinished business buried deep in his past, the synopsis for “Golpes” says. He commits robbery not for wealth or revenge, but to reclaim the land where his father, a Republican outlaw, lies in an unmarked grave after the Civil War, and soon to be erased by developers. The heartbeat of the film is how Sabino reacts in the wake of his reunion with Migueli, his new girlfriend, and his only family.
Variety interviewed Cobos shortly after the world premiere of Golpes in Valladolid.
Migueli and his gang share with the heroes of the “Quinqui” films a visceral hatred of the Spanish establishment. However, Migeli is distinguished by his past memories.
I completely agree. However, enough time has passed for the quinquis, the young rebels who rebelled against the system, to be able to respond to the obvious political reasons that stemmed from the Spanish Civil War.
‘Golpes’ gives a sense of Spain on the cusp of modernity, although parts of the country have been left behind. This is captured in an early scene where Migeli heads to the pension, then cuts to modern archival footage…
yes. Migueli returns to a poor area of Seville. You can tell by the stains on the walls. Archive footage shows ragged children who appear to be orphans or street children. We were in the summer of 1982, on the eve of the installation of Spain’s first left-wing government in decades, and yet there was a sense of a very remote, almost post-war Seville here.
You’ve said that “Golpes” is “a subtle allegory that attempts to portray a country in transition, a country that is unable to resolve its past and is full of contradictions and disorientation.” It can be seen in your direction, such as pensions, where there is a good mix of old and new, with modern drawers and old gas burners.
The home of Antunes, this pension is similar to the Casa de Vecino, a traditional communal house in Seville that is now disappearing. While I was photographing the interior, I could hear the sounds of construction work coming from outside. Her home is filled with the latest records from the 70s and early 80s, as well as a more folkloric and traditionalist side.
The film is also very emotional and lyrical.
Yes, that was my intention. I wanted a very emotional and moving film that was very lyrical and had an important poetic edge. And I think it’s there.
One way to create emotion is through music, such as the soundtrack that plays when Migueli comes home.
It’s the return of the main character, right? Music is very important. As you said, this film is a response to, or a reimagining of, Spain’s “cinema quinqui”.
But I wanted to go against everything. The Quinchi films we remember were much more raw, gritty, direct and direct. The music was flamenco, mixed with other genres, los chunguitos, los chichos, Catalan rumba, and I wanted something more sophisticated. At the beginning of the film, one of the songs is strictly based on flamenco seguidilla, which is used in many songs, but I wanted to take it to a more poetic and subversive level.
Another route to emotion is the actors of the film, here Jesus Caroza and Luis Tosar…
Yes, both are great. Jesús has a sense of honesty, truth and authenticity, and Luis has that and an incredible actor’s technique.
And support what I think is your goal: blending sociopolitical issues with entertainment.
“Golpes” has a mission to entertain and move the audience, but it is also a pretext for buried sociopolitical questions, and after experiencing the story’s journey through the film, it is intended to critique, or at least raise questions, at the end. The mission of a movie is to watch it, to be moved by it and, if possible, to ask many questions.
You say that even in Spain in 2025, the problem of Spanish historical memory has not been completely resolved.
It’s really not a problem, and hardly a problem at all. As time passes, we have not been able to reach any agreement, and it remains bones buried beneath the dark soil of a godforsaken ditch. That’s terrible.
And how do you want to proceed in the future?
I want to continue writing with Alberto. Writing is my driving force. However, I would like to continue working as a director as soon as possible.
Golpes
Credit: Giulio Vergne
