Synopsis
Benigno has just been released from prison. He is an intelligent, handsome young man who likes reading and writing but is homeless and an orphan. Having yearned to become an actor since childhood to no avail, he is fed up that no one pays attention to him. He decides to get attention by force. When a television crew of the Tele-Local, the local television station, come to the Sacred Heart Shelter where he and his homeless friends spend most of the time, Benigno guns down Sister Teresa in front of the rolling camera. Marisol, the most popular anchorwoman of Tele-Local covers Benigno's story with the hope of becoming a TV star on a national level. Meanwhile, the city's commissioner Ballesteros, the mayor and the TV director insist on complicating things for each of their reasons.
This film, the second work of Spanish Director Hector Carre, is a criminal comedy which is dark and rough, yet delightful. It begins with a realistic portrayal of the underprivileged people. The young Benigno inhales adhesives to forget hunger and his mother kills her drunker husband. Then the focus moves to the ado Benigno and his friends raise. This film seems to find more meaning in criticizing and degrading the absurd society through satire and mockery than in showing violence. The scene in which Marta urinates toward the face of Ballesteros during the live broadcast symbolizes such an intention. This film shares with "Network" and "Natural-Born Killers" the criticism about modern mass media that pursue extreme sensationalism in the name of audience's wishes. However, this film is less terrible and more light-hearted than the others. The sound of electric guitar played by Rosendo Mercado, one of the best rock guitarists of Spain, adds flavor to the movie as it is used at the right moment. (Song-nam Hong)