Torrente and predictive programming: what the Spanish film saga got right

Torrente: prophet or just a mirror of the Spain that was coming?

The Torrente saga, born at the height of Spain's property bubble, has since become the subject of political re-reading. Some argue that several of its scenes were not crude humour but anticipation of what now dominates the headlines: migration tensions, chronic poverty, police unpopularity or the independence challenge. The theory, known as predictive programming, suggests that fiction "vaccines" audiences against what is yet to come.

The 'hits' the saga claims

The examples cited span two decades. In Torrente 3: The Protector (2005), a construction site was already the setting for a mass arrival of immigrants. The picture is completed by current figures: 25% of the population at risk of poverty and 6.7 million people in precarious conditions, according to published reports. The plan to demolish the steps of the Valle de los Caídos for 30 million euros, or episodes of police violence, are added to the list. Even the geographical coincidence of former minister José Luis Ábalos, born in the town of Torrent, feeds the legend.

Between prophecy and picaresque

Not everyone agrees. Some point out that Spanish picaresque literature was already doing this in Lazarillo de Tormes. Others go further: Santiago Segura is not an oracle but a "court jester" with an excellent sociological nose and a remarkable roster of cameos from across the media spectrum in his later instalments. Under that reading, the saga predicts nothing: it simply reflects, without filters and with calculated political incorrectness, what was already happening. One recognisable "miss": nobody got Vox's electoral rise right.

The debate stalls on the same question: did Segura predict the future or portray the present? The discomfort of seeing Torrente as a mirror may be the only answer.