In the eighties, director Eloy de la Iglesia shot five films within the quinqui film: Navajeros (1980), Colegas (1982), El Pico (1983), El Pico 2 (1984) and La estanquera de Vallecas (1987). All of them share a theme that deals with certain aspects of Spanish society of that decade. The filmmaker tried to reflect the situation of marginal young people with these films: unemployment, drugs, delinquency, social contempt, ties of loyalty and friendship in the group of equals, prostitution and xenophobia for singularities such as homosexuality. One can read the film texts from very different points of view among those who have chosen the most elementary: as in all these films, there is a social complaint. We will approach the content of this film from a sociological point of view, focusing on themes that respond to a complaint and the way in which Eloy de la Iglesia formulates it.

Cinema on the Margin

Eloy de la Iglesia made a series of five feature films with the general theme of juvenile marginality and delinquency: Navajeros (1980), Colegas (1982), El Pico (1983), El Pico 2 (1984) and La estanquera de Vallecas (1987). This set, included in the quinqui film of the eighties, is rooted in the reality from which it was born in such a way that reviewing it in light of its context seems like an adequate way to approach it 30 years after its premiere, when life seems to have put its own end to almost all the stories, not only the ones it told but rather the ones it could provoke.

Although, as is well known, all art is a metaphor for reality and the fact that certain works seem more realistic does not prevent them from being mere subjective interpretations. De la Iglesia seems to be especially committed to the fact that the viewer has the greatest possible sensation of spontaneity and street from these films, not hesitating to neglect the aesthetics of the realization: completion of certain scenes in editing, harmonization of the chosen music, attention to the narrative rhythm, and so on