Juan Margallo

The Spirit of the Beehive

In 1940, in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, a young girl living on the Castilian plain is haunted after attending a screening of James Whale's 1931 film Frankenstein and hearing from her sister that the monster is not dead, instead existing as a spirit inhabiting a nearby barn.

Champions

A disgraced basketball coach is given the chance to coach Los Amigos, a team of players who are intellectually disabled, and soon realizes they just might have what it takes to make it to the national championships.

Close Your Eyes

Years after his mysterious disappearance, Julio Arenas, a famous Spanish actor, is back in the news thanks to a television program.

November

Impelled by a spirit which still preserves a patina of idealism, Alfredo arrives to Madrid with the intention to create "a performance that is free, straight from the heart, capable of making people feel alive". His concept of what acting should be begins beyond the stage, out in the streets face to face with the public. Outdoors, in any town square, in a park or in the city's most commercial street, Alfredo and his troupe November start the show; demons to provoke passers-by, displays of social conscience, actions taken to the extreme to put the forces of law and order on full alert. There are no limits, no censorship; only ideas which are always valid so long as the public ceases to be the public and becomes part of the show swept by surprise, fear, tears or laughter. Theater as life, life as theater… there is no longer any difference.

Los flamencos

Diego, retired from flamenco due to an illness, is obsessed with the memory of Antonia Jiménez, a beautiful woman he loved in the past and with whom he formed an artistic duet. Now, after having triumphed on the stages of half the world, she returns from America, while he is dedicated to survive in the suburbs of Madrid mixed up in shady business. He kills the man who stole his woman. A tragedy could be sensed in the air.

¡Se armó el belén!

An old priest, who has old ideas, is intended to exercise the apostolate in a neighborhood in the suburbs of Madrid. There the revolutionary climate and anti-religious character of the congregation thwarts all his attempts to attract them. The Archbishop admonishes him and asks to renew his methods, using the example of a young priest of a modern parish. The old priest tries to apply in his environment what he has seen in the parish model, setting off a chain of events.

Hablar

An anthology film with 20 stories on the subject of words, communication, linked to one another over a 400-metre stretch: from Madrid's Lavapiés Square to the Sala Mirador. A journey between theatre and cinema, filmed in a single fixed shot running continuously over 80 minutes and half a kilometer, in Madrid's popular Lavapiés district. The characters talk, argue, laugh, cry, threaten, whisper, shout, steal, make dates, get angry with and hug one another, prompting the spectator to reflect on the immense power of words.

Oblivion Verses

When the elderly caretaker of a remote morgue discovers the body of a young woman killed during a protest, he embarks on a magical odyssey to give her a proper burial before the militia returns.

El mundo de Juan Lobón

Solitary Fragments

Adela and her baby move to Madrid in search of a new start after a tough separation. Antonia is a shop owner with three adult daughters. The film is divided into five chapters revolving around their health, work, relationships and money.