Talk of a Maricarmen film: 'a production company is already interested'

Los Javis film Maricarmen until she lands the flat

A production company is already interested. That is the only claim made in a debate currently doing the rounds in current-affairs conversations: a film about Maricarmen when she was young, with Los Javis behind the camera, ending at the exact moment the protagonist gets a flat. There is no public script, no casting, no dates. What there is, instead, is a fairly widespread suspicion: that the industry's interest in this kind of product has nothing to do with the box office.

The scene that sparked the comment points to The Act of Killing, the film about the Indonesian coup in which the military killed a million communists using atrocious methods, a genocide the West covered up because Sukarno was pro-American. From there comes the comparison: the actress who in that film plays a man and who is said to resemble Maricarmen. The leap from historical drama to property melodrama is, at the very least, striking.

Which budget line the money comes from

The scepticism is not aimed at the plot, it is aimed at the financing. The scheme described is a familiar one: a production company close to the relevant ministry, a budget inflated with artistic expenses nobody audits, a subsidy from the ICAA (Spain's film institute) plus regional grants plus the thirty percent tax deduction for whoever finances it. The box office is negligible. The business is already done before the premiere. And as a bonus, the public platform of the day buys the rights.

Within that framework, the question of whether it is a good investment answers itself. Films are not shot to sell tickets, they are shot to capture public money and, if the occasion arises, to slot in whichever narrative happens to be in fashion. Whether it rains in Galicia is less certain.

The cast that writes itself

On the creative side, the bets go elsewhere. Concha Velasco is mentioned for the role of Maricarmen, with the immediate correction that she died in 2023, and alternatives such as Marisa Paredes or Anabel Alonso are proposed. It is also pointed out that some lgtb character will have to be included and that a Francoist will have to spoil things for her in some way, only for it to be revealed at the end that the Francoist was lgtb too. It writes itself, they conclude.

The comparison with Almodóvar appears without embarrassment: reality confused with fantasy, characters that are not believable, plots with no rhyme or reason. And the warning that this material is not for Los Javis because they are too good for it. The bar, on that reading, lies elsewhere.

What is known about the project and what is not

As of this discussion, the only claim made is that a production company is already interested. There is no confirmation of filming, casting or a schedule. The rest is conversation: the suspicion that the product is designed to capture public money, the doubt over whether audiences will pay for a ticket to see it, and the idea that if the grant circuit works as usual, the answer will not matter.

One detail remains that throws people off. Out of all the possible episodes of a life, the cut comes exactly when the protagonist signs for the flat. The story ends where the property begins.