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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain

Belén Rueda and José Coronado toplining La familia perfecta

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- The second fiction feature by Arantxa Echevarría, a comedy also starring Jesús Vidal, Gonzalo de Castro and Carolina Yuste, is nearing the end of post-production

Belén Rueda and José Coronado toplining La familia perfecta
Belén Rueda and José Coronado in La familia perfecta

With Carmen & Lola [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Arantxa Echevarría
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]
, a drama about youthful lesbian love that was set in the milieu of the Spanish Gypsy community, Bilbao-born Arantxa Echevarría garnered critical acclaim, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and picked up a well-deserved Goya Award for Best New Director in 2019. For all these reasons, her new work, entitled La familia perfecta [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(lit. “The Perfect Family”), which the director shot last year and which is currently having the finishing touches put to its edit, is particularly hotly anticipated.

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On this occasion, it will represent a complete change of direction in terms of genre, concept and style, as it will be a madcap comedy starring Belén Rueda, José Coronado (who previously worked together on the thriller The Body [+see also:
film review
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film profile
]
), Gonzalo de Castro, Gonzalo Ramos, Pepa Aniorte, Jesús Vidal and Carolina Yuste, a very much sought-after actress (Sky High [+see also:
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interview: Daniel Calparsoro
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]
) who performed in the director’s feature debut (subsequently taking home the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress – the film thus served as a launch pad for her career).

Shot in Madrid, Rascafría, Guadarrama and Brihuega (Guadalajara) over the course of seven weeks during autumn 2020, once film production activities had restarted in Spain (its original shoot, scheduled for spring, had to be postponed owing to the pandemic), La familia perfecta has a screenplay written by Olatz Arroyo (Mamá o papá [+see also:
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) and recounts how Lucía (played by Rueda) thinks she leads an exemplary life and has everything under control. Ever since she got married, this woman has invested all of her effort in taking care of her family, with the aim of attaining what, for her, is the pinnacle of perfection. However, everything starts to fall apart the day Sara (Yuste), her son’s girlfriend, appears. Along with this young, free-spirited, foul-mouthed girl come some in-laws who are very different to the ones that Lucía had always pictured for her son. From that moment on, Lucía will find out that the perfect family was not exactly what she’d had in mind.

Having initially had the working title La mujer perfecta (lit. “The Perfect Woman”), this film, which has received €1 million in support from the ICAA, boasts a total budget of €3.5 million. According to the director, “We managed to create an incredible atmosphere during the shoot: the fact that it’s a comedy meant that we were immersed in a very joyful atmosphere. Despite the face masks that we were wearing, I could see the eagerness in the team’s expressions because they were all smiling with their eyes.”

La familia perfecta – with a soundtrack entrusted to France’s Pascal Gaigne (The Endless Trench [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño an…
film profile
]
) and cinematography by Pilar Sánchez (Carmen & Lola) – is a production by Lazona Producciones, Atresmedia Cine and The Snake Films AIE, with funding from the ICAA, and the involvement of Atresmedia and Canal Cosmopolitan Iberia. The Spanish theatrical release will be handled by Universal Pictures International Spain.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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