13/04/2022 - In his debut feature, José Corral Llorente creates a bizarre black comedy with hints of thriller and social cinema

There are films that really surprise you. They manage to transport you to other worlds, to let you escape from reality, to go beyond your expectations or your ideas about it or the possibilities of film. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it is truly wonderful. Most recently, I fondly remember The Queen of the Lizards [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], by the collective Burnin’ Percebes.  It was a beautiful film. Imaginative, risky, strange, hilarious, unexpected. It told a love story that will probably never take the box office by storm but will remain in the memory of some viewers. I remember it now because, in part (and trying to bridge the gap, which is pretty large), the film that Filmax is releasing today 13 April in Spain, Contando ovejas [+see also:
trailer
interview: José Corral Llorente
film profile], the debut film by José Corral Llorente, starring Eneko Sagardoy and Natalia de Molina, reminds me of it.

Contando ovejas is also a rarity. A daring comedy, with offbeat humour. It is also full of imagination, because that's what a lot of it is about, the stories we imagine in order to live. The film tells the story of Ernesto (a magnificent Sagardoy, who carries much of the film's weight with a difficult performance), the handyman of an old building in Madrid where Leandro (Juan Grandinetti) also lives, a drug dealer who holds parties in his flat where he sells his goods to city slickers. Ignored by all these hipsters who parade every night on his staircase, and unable to sleep because of all the racket they make, Ernesto practically lives in isolation, spending his free time building models with figurines that he then animates to make his films. But everything will start to take a turn in his life when, through his hobby, three peculiar flatmates appear (interestingly, one of these surprise characters is voiced by Manolo Solo) who will try to help him out of his nightmare.

Inspired by the original universe of his animated short Down by Love (winner of an award at the Malaga Festival), from fantasy and humour, Corral creates a bizarre black comedy with hints of thriller and social cinema (and some horror) that is as funny as it is sad. Because deep down, despite its kind façade, the story is devastating. Isolation, precariousness (economic and emotional), violence, fear of rejection, the desire to fit in, the need to love and be loved, the disparity between how we appear or what we would like to be and what we are, between the life we dream of and the life we actually have, and loneliness, above all, loneliness. This is what Contando ovejas is about.

The film has some hilarious moments and some heart-breaking ones. Precisely in this contrast, in the ability to make people laugh despite the rawness of the story, lies one of its great qualities. And with it, also in its ability to bewilder. This bewilderment comes from a successful contrast of moods, from this lightness and this fantastic imaginary (both in substance and in form) from which the bitter realism of the story is told, from this special blend between both, between fiction and reality.

Contando ovejas is a first film, a small and interesting film, with no great or inspiring aspirations (which is welcomed), quite Martian, different from those comedies that are often a box office hit. I left the cinema feeling good about the time I had just spent, and also because, seeing how difficult it is to get these films off the ground, you can't help but celebrate their theatrical release.

Contando ovejas is a Spanish co-production of the companies Aquí y Allí Films, Lanube Películas and the Argentinian Wanka Cine.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)