Filming began on Los últimos románticos (Azken Erromantikoak) [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] at the beginning of February. It is the second film directed by David Pérez Sañudo (who made his feature debut in 2020 with Ane [+leggi anche:
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intervista: David Pérez Sañudo
scheda film], presented in the New Directors section at San Sebastian and winner of three Goya awards) and starring Miren Gaztañaga (an actress who has appeared in the series Intimacy [+leggi anche:
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scheda series] and in films such as The Legacy of the Bones [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
scheda film], among others). Its script is written by Marina Parés and the filmmaker himself, who already worked together on his debut film, and is the film adaptation of the novel of the same title written by Txani Rodríguez, winner of the Euskadi Literature Prize. Filming, in Basque, lasted seven weeks in Gernika (Bizkaia), Lisbon, Ronda (Malaga) and Seville.

According to its makers, Los últimos románticos is a brilliant film about life's twists and turns and second chances, as it tells the story of Irune, an insecure, lonely woman with hypochondriac tendencies, who works in a paper factory on the outskirts of an industrial town in Álava. She only has a small circle of acquaintances: work colleagues, a neighbour with whom she shares something resembling that of a friendship, and a train operator who she asks the times of trains that she never takes. Her fragile balance will explode when a lump is detected in one breast, coinciding with a labour dispute in which she is involved. It is then that her life takes an unexpected turn, giving her the opportunity that, perhaps unbeknownst to her, she had always been waiting for.

Pérez Sañudo says that "the material inherited from Txani Rodríguez has been the ideal breeding ground to develop many of our concerns: characters adrift in a hostile context, a mixture of genres, a portrait of a Basque village in the area where I grew up... All these elements are shared by the team, as well as by the production companies, who see that this difficulty in labelling the film is what is most special about the story. It has been a pleasure to experience a development process in which I have felt how a script based on a novel written by someone else is transformed into a deeply personal project, which speaks to other works of mine", concludes the filmmaker from Bilbao, who also directed the miniseries Alardea, created Detective Touré (read more) and whose next project is entitled Sacamantecas.

Los últimos románticos is produced by Ander Sagardoy, Ander Barinaga-Rementeria and Xabier Berzosa for the Basque company Irusoin and Olmo Figueredo González-Quevedo, Carlos Rosado Sibón and Sara Gómez for the Andalusian company La Claqueta PC. It involves the participation of EiTB, Canal Sur Televisión and HBO Max, and is supported by the ICAA, the Basque Government and Europa Creativa Media. It will be released in Spanish cinemas distributed by A Contracorriente Films.