– The feature film, produced by Movistar Plus+, Little Spain and Elastica Films, stars Daniel Ibáñez, Milena Smit, Rubén Ochandiano, Gustavo Salmerón, Diego Calva and Antón Álvarez
Rubén Ochandiano and Daniel Ibáñez on the set of Domani (© Lluís Tudela)
Domani marks Santos Bacana’s move into fiction after co-directing the documentary This Excessive Ambition, about the musician C. Tangana. With a distinctive directorial style and commercial appeal, the film (half thriller, half comedy) stars Spanish actors Daniel Ibáñez (Goya nominee for Saturn Return), Milena Smit (Goya nominee for Parallel Mothers and Cross the Line, recently in Bitter Christmas); Rubén Ochandiano (Goya nominee for Broken Silence, recently in Daniela Forever) and Gustavo Salmerón (winner of two Goyas for his work as a director, the short film Desaliñada and the documentary Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle). They are joined by Argentine actress Mina Serrano and Mexican actors Ilse Salas and Diego Calva (Babylon, seen this year in Cannes in Club Kid and Her Private Hell), with a special guest appearance by Antón Álvarez (C. Tangana).
Filmed in Madrid on 35 mm, the screenplay – written by the director himself, Clara Roquet (Goya Award winner for Libertad) and Eduard Sola (Goya Award winner for A House on Fire) – introduces Alfonso Luna (Ibáñez), who returns to Spain from Miami to give evidence in a court case linked to an old road accident. The victim is demanding a substantial sum of money in exchange for not taking him to trial. What was meant to be a brief stay in the city becomes increasingly complicated as old friends and acquaintances from the world of show business drag the protagonist into wild, self-centred, late-night escapades.
According to Bacana, “making this film means realising that some ideas are more stubborn than you are. If an idea is worthwhile, it doesn’t disappear and eventually finds a way to become reality. Domani is a homecoming story, but a frenetic one, condensed into 24 hours. It’s a belated coming-of-age tale, typical of the times we live in — a portrait of that strange age when you’re no longer young, but don’t quite feel like a full-fledged adult, when you start to realise that time is passing faster than you ever imagined.”
“I’ve always said it’s the story of a guy who can’t say no in Madrid. And it is. But it’s also a film about coming back: about the people, places and decisions you think you’ve left behind, but which are still waiting for you where they always were. And about the feeling that life almost never turns out as planned,” he concludes.
Álvaro Santos, known professionally as Santos Bacana, is an audiovisual creator whose career spans film, music, advertising and design. In 2020, he became C. Tangana’s creative director for the album El madrileño and shortly afterwards returned to Madrid to found the production company Little Spain, alongside Cris Trenas, Rogelio González and C. Tangana. The documentary This Excessive Ambition (co-directed with Trenas and González) premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival and was nominated for a Goya Award.
Domani is produced by Movistar Plus+, Cris Trenas for Little Spain and María Zamora for Elastica Films, with funding from the ICAA and the Community of Madrid. It will be distributed in Spain by Elastica Films.
(Translated from Spanish)
