Even with the title, José Luis Garci is honored in this film and his Alone in the morning (1978), archive images of this production are even used as can be read in the end credits. But there are many more nods and tributes to movies, books, music… How well it fits, in the end, that Flying is for birds sung by that great voice of the now deceased Hilario Camacho, how the passage rises to the heights.
However, the most intimate of tributes that the director from Córdoba Guillermo Rojas What he does with this comedy set on February 23, 1981, is undoubtedly his father: Francisco Rojas, a lawyer who worked in a labor office in the city, and who much later transmitted some of his experiences to his son, concerns and fears that were experienced the night of the failed coup d’état. From there, the director is inspired to write this endearing story in a friendly tone, with the occasional stroke of comedy, filmed in the streets of Priego and with a fairly correct period setting, without stridency or outbursts.
As for the performances, although it is a fairly choral film, Rojas has had many members of the team who have accompanied him since his first cinematic steps. Let us remember his interesting debut feature, which we already talked about in this same space in times of pandemic, One more time (2019), proposing a cast made up of Pablo Gómez-Pando, Andrea Carballo, Alfonso Sánchez (in a register very different from what we are used to), Félix Gómez, Paula Usero, Beatriz Arjona and Jacinto Bobo (protagonists of his previous feature film)… All of them maintain a good tone, without ups and downs, composing a picture adjusted to what is required by the narrative, where touches of comedy are simultaneous with the most emotional moments.
We are, therefore,nte an original portrait of what happened in many places in the country during the night in which Democracy could have been ruined, in the middle of the Transition.
Even with the title, José Luis Garci is honored in this film and his Alone in the morning (1978), archive images of this production are even used as can be read in the end credits. But there are many more nods and tributes to movies, books, music… How well it fits, in the end, that Flying is for birds sung by that great voice of the now deceased Hilario Camacho, how the passage rises to the heights.
However, the most intimate of tributes that the director from Córdoba Guillermo Rojas What he does with this comedy set on February 23, 1981, is undoubtedly his father: Francisco Rojas, a lawyer who worked in a labor office in the city, and who much later transmitted some of his experiences to his son, concerns and fears that were experienced the night of the failed coup d’état. From there, the director is inspired to write this endearing story in a friendly tone, with the occasional stroke of comedy, filmed in the streets of Priego and with a fairly correct period setting, without stridency or outbursts.
As for the performances, although it is a fairly choral film, Rojas has had many members of the team who have accompanied him since his first cinematic steps. Let us remember his interesting debut feature, which we already talked about in this same space in times of pandemic, One more time (2019), proposing a cast made up of Pablo Gómez-Pando, Andrea Carballo, Alfonso Sánchez (in a register very different from what we are used to), Félix Gómez, Paula Usero, Beatriz Arjona and Jacinto Bobo (protagonists of his previous feature film)… All of them maintain a good tone, without ups and downs, composing a picture adjusted to what is required by the narrative, where touches of comedy are simultaneous with the most emotional moments.
We are, therefore,nte an original portrait of what happened in many places in the country during the night in which Democracy could have been ruined, in the middle of the Transition.
