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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain

Juan José Ballesta and Miki Esparbé top the bill in Un hombre de acción

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- Directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera, this Netflix-produced fiction film is based on the real life of anarchist Lucio Urtubia

Juan José Ballesta and Miki Esparbé top the bill in Un hombre de acción
Miki Esparbé and Juan José Ballesta in Un hombre de acción

A few days ago, the shoot wrapped for Un hombre de acción (lit. “A Man of Action”), a film starring Juan José Ballesta (who made a brief appearance in the Historias para no dormir [+see also:
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trailer
series profile
]
episode entitled El asfalto) and Miki Esparbé (who is right now taking orders from Félix Viscarret on the set of Not Such an Easy Life [+see also:
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]
). Directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera (Superlópez [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, the yet-to-be-released Malnazidos [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), produced by Netflix and written by Patxi Amezcua (The 7th Floor, Gun City [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), the film is loosely based on the life of Navarre native Lucio Urtubia. For the director, “The life of this robber, counterfeiter, anarchist and, first and foremost, construction worker was a fabulous source of inspiration for constructing a frenetic, entertaining and exciting movie. It’s a pleasure to be accompanied by such an extraordinary cast and crew on a project as ambitious as this.”

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Un hombre de acción was shot in both Spain and France, staged by production house La Pulga y el Elefante SL, founded by Javier Ugarte and Edmon Roch. In the words of its producers: “Working with Netflix is a unique opportunity to communicate, in a universal way, the message of a revolutionary and incredibly active life, which still delights and surprises people to this day. It’s wonderful to be able to convey those transformative ideas that sprang up in post-war Europe and which shook up the continent for decades afterwards. We’re very fortunate to be able to bank on a director of the calibre of Ruiz Caldera to helm a project that whisks us away to Paris during the period spanning from the 1950s to the 1980s, when most of the action unfolds.”

Indeed, the film explores the figure of the so-called anarchists’ “Robin Hood”, who carried out a legendary counterfeiting operation in Paris that thrust him into the crosshairs of the biggest bank in the USA, when he managed to obtain a huge amount of money by forging traveller’s cheques with the aim of investing it in causes that he believed in.

The feature therefore takes in several decades as it follows Lucio’s trail as part of the European anarchist movement, from his humble beginnings as a builder-turned-bank robber, all the way up to masterminding one of the biggest economic swindles of last century. However, Lucio will have to choose between the anarchist cause and looking out for his friends and family.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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