Marco Ferreri filmed his first three features in Spain before returning home to Italy. For the first (The Little Flat) and third (The Little Coach), he partnered with Rafael Azcona, a screenwriter also making his debut; the collaboration between these two would be crucial for shaping some of the fundamental traits of Spanish black humor. The Little Coach portrays the trials and tribulations of Anselmo Proharán, a retiree willing to do anything, even do away with his family, in order to get himself a mobility scooter like those owned by his elderly cronies at the park. Although censorship under the Franco regime took some of the bite out of this film and imposed upon it a moralistic ending, it could not repress the harshness with which it depicts a distressful country.

Screening with:

El Engaño / The Cheating
Germán Scelso, Spain, 2009, digital projection, 15m
Spanish with English subtitles

We don’t know how documentary filmmaker Germán first met Juan, but we join them as they watch a bullfight on television. Out of the blue, Juan asks Germán to help him carry out an act of vengeance…