The modern Bruc hotel, located in the Catalan municipality of El Bruc, at the foot of the Montserrat mountain, has looked for a few days like the famous Ku nightclub, Ibiza's flagship in the eighties. At that huge venue on the Balearic island -with a capacity for 10,000 people-, at the end of that golden decade, a group of young people crazy about fashion was about to form one of the great musical phenomena in Spain: Locomía.
Their peculiar choreographies, catchy lyrics and their XL fans and shoulder pads were all the rage: they revolutionized clubs all over the world without having any idea of singing and filled stadiums in Latin America until everything shattered and they fell into oblivion. His convulsive story was narrated last year in the documentary series Locomía, the greatest soap opera ever danced (Movistar Plus) and now Kike Maíllo does the same for the big screen with a film that has been shooting since May 18 in Barcelona and its surroundings, as well as in Tenerife, with a cast that includes Jaime Lorente, Alberto Ammann, Alejandro Speitzer, Albert Baró, Pol Granch, Iván Pellicer and Blanca Suárez, among others.
"This is a film that talks about friendship, chosen families and that framed in a Spain at the end of the eighties, where, somehow, it reached the climax of an explosion of freedoms that materialized with the Madrid movement or what was happening on a musical level in different scenes such as the Basque or Catalan. We were interested in talking about the disappearance of the taboo, being able to vindicate yourself and being able to explain who you are, being able to have your own sense of romance, love and sexuality", he explains the director on a break from filming, which began on Monday with the absence of Lorente due to illness.
The actor from Money Heist plays Xavi Font, founder of the band discovered by producer José Luis Gil (Alberto Ammann), with whom they ended up in court. "Xavi is the controversial character because he has all that part that has to do with leadership, the idea, the artistic impulse and at the same time, a tyranny. He was the fourth of six sons and in his house he was nobody and he had I had to invent a family. I was fascinated by Jaime's casting test. He is a great comedian and I am delighted with his work", affirms Maíllo.
"I'm discovering a group of actors and having a lot of fun with them because the movie proposes it." And he praises the work of the interpreters, who have grown calluses on their hands from handling so many dizzying fans. "They are fans who do S's. Seeing them work together is the best," he says proudly.
"I come from making a more serious type of cinema and here I have the opportunity to experience excess. I lived through the time of Locomía, even though I was a boy. It was something very surprising, to see how a group of very feminine boys dressed and moved. And on the other hand, you could think that they were tacky and their music was lousy", continues the Barcelona director, who admits that "he was not a big fan of the group" and that the film is not a tribute to the use of Locomía. "It does not intend to vindicate a group from the artistic perspective, but from the human perspective."
Both he and the co-writer Marta-Libertad Castillo have researched a lot about the members of the band and some of them have become involved in the project and have visited the filming. He assures Maíllo that in the end they have opted for the El Bruc hotel for the locations of the disco because in Ibiza "this location does not exist, the island has changed a lot and there were not the facilities that Barcelona offers". The focus of the film is far from being a biopic, "it is more musical and comedy, completely contemporary and with a larger staging. We want to make an interesting and entertaining film about Locomía that has housed the destruction of the band from its creation."
According to the director of EVA y Toro, "we have tried to be understanding with all the characters and the story is full of gray because it speaks of failure." A portrait of "how an adventure is spoiled by ambitions and egos". And he points out that, although the film appeals to a nostalgic public, "I trust that it talks about issues that are very current: homophobia, living your life as you want... in the end, they are people who are vindicating themselves and that in a given moment they don't let them".
Blanca Suárez gets into the skin of Lurdes Iribar, "the great unknown of the world. I was crazy because for many years the group was five, not four. She was the fifth until she was invited to step aside and form part of the group from somewhere else. In this film we will see who she was and what place she had in the creation of the band." The actress admits that she has embarked on a role very different from what she has done so far. "She had never danced and the choreographies are very specific. And the fan thing seems easy but it is not. We have been rehearsing for two months and we wanted to get to the moment of filming."
Locomía, in her opinion, "was a group with an overwhelming personality. They were a unique product and that continues today. It seems to me that their history is very tremendous and unknown," adds the actress, who will premiere the comedy Me next October I have gone viral.
The Mexican Alejandro Speitzer is in charge of giving life to Carlos Armas, the musician who sported dark hair, while the singer and actor Pol Granch is Jaume, "a character created with whom I am having a lot of fun because I have more freedom." Speitzer acknowledges the great responsibility of giving the character "that life and personality that he had, understanding that it is fiction."
She assures that she knew his songs and confesses between laughs that her mother told her that she was in love with Carlos when she was young. "They were many things and as young people, we also have that concern." And Granch defends that "his music, if it came out today, would be current. We are very grateful to be able to revive his songs and his choreographies. I feel very identified with them."
The filming of Locomía is scheduled to end the first week of July and its jump to the cinema is expected for 2024. The film is a Nadie es Perfecto production in co-production with La chica de la curva and SBD Films, with the participation of Atresmedia, Netflix and TV3 and its distribution will be in charge of DeAPlaneta.
