27/02/2024 - The new film by the two-time Golden Shell winner at San Sebastian, co-directed with filmmaker Pol Rodríguez and sold by Latido Films, recreates the Spanish music scene in the 1990s

Daniel Ibáñez, Cristalino and Stéphanie Magnin in Saturn Return

After participating at the Berlinale with his previous project One Year, One Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isaki Lacuesta
film profile], two-time Golden Shell winner at San Sebastian (for The Double Steps [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Between Two Waters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isaki Lacuesta
film profile]) Isaki Lacuesta will premiere his eagerly awaited new film Saturn Return [+see also:
film review
film profile] in the official competition section of Malaga Film Festival (1-10 March). The film is based on the story of the recording of the album Una semana en el motor de un autobús (1998), by the Granada band Los Planetas.

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The film is co-directed with Pol Rodríguez, who made his feature film debut with Quatretondeta [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which received two Silver Biznagas at this very festival and assisted Lacuesta's on his previous film, as well as having directed several episodes of the series Deudas.

With a screenplay written by Lacuesta himself and Fernando Navarro (Verónica [+see also:
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interview: Paco Plaza
film profile], Venus [+see also:
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film profile]), the film tells the story of how in Granada, at the end of the nineties and in the midst of artistic and cultural effervescence, an indie band is in its most precarious period: the bass player breaks up with the band in search of his place outside music and the guitarist is in a dangerous spiral of self-destruction. Meanwhile, the singer is facing a complicated writing and recording process for his third album. No one knows that this LP - which opens with the song Segundo premio - will forever change the music scene of an entire country.

Isaki Lacuesta has stated that "its main characters are played by real musicians from Granada from a generation after Los Planetas and some of them were related to the original band. The music scenes were performed live on set. The film doesn’t aim to be an accurate historical chronicle, but an almost fantastic overview. We didn't want to make a film about Los Planetas but about their legend, as it might be told a hundred years from now."

Daniel Ibáñez (an actor seen in The Laws of the Border [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and the series La edad de la ira [+see also:
trailer
series profile] and The Gypsy Bride [+see also:
trailer
series profile]) plays the band’s singer; Cristalino (Fran Ocete), guitarist, singer and composer, plays the guitarist, and Chesco Ruiz, also a musician, plays the bassist, Mafo (Mario Fernández), who has collaborated with Los Planetas and other bands such as Lagartija Nick and Señor Chinarro and the singer Soleá Morente, plays the drummer; and playing Maite, Stéphanie Magnin (Piggy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlota Pereda
film profile], Advantages of Travelling by Train [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

Saturn Return is produced by the Spanish companies La Terraza Films, Ikiru Films, Áralan Films, Bteam Prods, Sideral Films, Los Ilusos Films and Toxicosmos AIE in collaboration with the French company Capricci Films. It includes the participation of RTVE, Canal Sur and Movistar Plus+, and is supported by the Junta de Andalucía, the Community of Madrid and Madrid City Council, plus funding from the ICAA. Its international sales are managed by Latido Films and it will be distributed in Spain by BTeam Pictures.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)