José Sámano

Spain, 1973. Dictator Francisco Franco has ruled the country since 1939 with an iron fist; but he is now a very old and sick man. The future of the weakened regime is in danger. Admiral Carrero Blanco is his natural successor. The Basque terrorist gang ETA decides that he must die to prevent the dictatorship from continuing.

The father of a terminally ill girl is determined to grant his daughter's last wish, a ridiculously expensive collectors' costume from a Japanese TV series. The request will drive him into a journey within his city's dark underbelly.

Cecilio Rubes, a businessman engaged in the manufacture of baths and toilets, tries to remain neutral in the imminent Spanish civil war. But the attitude of Cécil, his only child, a spoiled boy who grows without respect their parents, will forced him to face the cruel reality of the facts. Jumping back and forth in time, we are shown his present and his past through his wife Adela and Paulina, the mistress of father and son.

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.

In the 18th century in Madrid, the Marquess of Esquilache, King Charles III of Spain's former minister, bans on wearing the popular wide collar with a long coat and brimmed hat. Along with other measures provoke a massive riot in the city.

In a dressing room of the theater where she performs a play by Miguel Delibes, actress Lola Herrera has a long conversation with actor Daniel Dicenta, from whom she has been separated for several years.

Zabu was a dancer in a small cabaret in Bilbao. Twelve years later she is living with her daughter Lola and a small delinquent called Lino in a squalid suburb of an industrial city. She dreams of leaving for Australia.