After deceiving the Treasury, taking advantage of a juicy subsidy for having his headquarters in a low-class neighborhood, the owner Andrés (Quim Gutierrez) of a company is forced to move his offices to the 'Los Caños' neighborhood. This is located on the most marginal outskirts of the capital. Andrés, her girlfriend (Sara Sálamo) and his team meet young Benja (Javier Herrera), who quickly proposes to teach them the rules and practices to adopt in this new environment.
This is a comedy about the relationships and prejudices within the poorest neighborhoods and their people, a crossroads of cultures between well-off people and others who are scraping by as best they can. From here on, the film seeks to delve into the prejudices that exist on both sides. The protagonists come from the most exclusive areas of Madrid and must learn to coexist with the locals, the working-class neighborhood of Los Caños, created for the film to avoid explicit references to some of the capital's most depressed areas. Quim Gutiérrez (Primos) and Sara Sálamo (El Favor) stars the remake of a French film : ¨Bienvenidos al Barrio¨ (2019) by Mohamed Hamidi' starring Gilles Lellouche, Malik Bentalha, Sabrina Ouazani , Camille Lou. Its conversion into 'Al otro barrio' has succeeded in bringing it into the realm of Spanish comedy. Written by Daniel Monedero and Francisco Arnal, two experts in the genre both in film (they were behind 'Christmas in Their Hands' and '10,000 km from Christmas') and in series ('Gym Tony,' 'The Mata Family'), this film maintains the premise of how a renowned advertising agency director is forced to move his company to a suburban neighborhood due to a tax scam. Stars Quim Gutiérrez who gives a sympathetic acting as the charismatic boss of a trendy Madrid communication agency, Happy Few that after a heated tax audit, the administration forces him to relocate his company to Los Caños. Along with him is a large group of supporting actors, well played by young actors, some novices, others veterans, among whom it is worth highlighting: Javier Herrra, Elena Ballesteros, Fernando Valdivielso, Carlos Librado 'Nene' Carlos Librado 'Nene', Francesc Orella, Antonio Buíl, Carmen Ruiz, Álvaro Fontalba, Jorge Usón, among others.
'Al otro barrio' fulfills everything one would expect from a feel-good movie. There are characters belonging to ethnic minorities and colored people which are usually positive role models. In fact, its intention to break down prejudices attempts to do so from both sides, showing that not all that glitters is gold, nor that all humble people have a big heart. There are moments when the film could easily be a comical response to the series 'Entrevías', fused with the peculiar touch of the French film
Jusqu'ici tout va bien (2019).
Although the film is uneven and irregular, still I recommend this particular movie because it is funny, at times poignant, the acting is acceptable, love seems to triumph over racial differences and all people can strive for the common good despite being different. All these things can happen- at least on the big screen.
The motion picture was professionally directed by Mar Olid, though without originality, due to she copies the various incidents and situations of the French film.
Mar Olid's movie debut, but she has an expert track record as a director of episodes of television series, being known for Águila Roja (2009), Ella es su padre (2017), Un paso adelante (2002),Vivir sin permiso (2020), Sin cobertura (2025), entre otras.
