The context of the new democracy, during which cinematography was experiencing the rise of filmmakers seeking to make a space on the Spanish scene with a novel style, shows the marginal and conflictive areas of Barcelona, in an operation of clear decentralization of the Spanish Transition from Madrid to other places in the national geography. Barcelona sur (1981) presents the story of a young girl who tries to get away from a life of crime, drugs and abuse in a desperate attempt to get out of this context by breaking the bonds with these habits. In spite of the negative critiques that it has received due to the poor performance of its cast and the little transcendence of the film beyond its moment of premiere, the film collects the urban-social problem of the moment and, seen more than three decades later, serves as a witness to the convulsion of the time and of the structural problems of Spanish society. This subgenre of film denounces the social problems of the transition through the void of the peripheral city and the metaphor of the disillusionment that a realistic representation offers through the setting in the neighborhoods of a failed growth and liberation after the entry of democracy. The social, urban and cultural marginality that appears in the film moves away from the fireworks of the most well-known political and cultural movement of the time, the muchtraveled Movida, with Barcelona sur being a more credible vision of urban centers and their worries.

Summing up the argument, there is a Barcelona that stands as one of the port cities in Europe most hit by drug trafficking and prostitution. The young Gumer, fresh out of jail, finds her friend Charo who is enslaved by her pimp, Toni. Gumer convinces Charo to leave Toni and form, together with other friends, an association of their own criminal gang.