Controversial Basque director Eloy de la Iglesia (Cannibal Man/The Deputy) set his sights on a series of films depicting the troubled youth of Spain in the 70s and 80s.
These “Quinqui” (juvenile delinquent films) were wildly popular but became problematic for the director, who was like Pasolini in his Communist views and also gay, attracted to the tough street kids he examined in his movies. And while these films about delinquents touched on drug use, the director also became a heroin addict during the making of these movies which sidelined his career for many years.
The first in these transgressive, fascinating films is Navajeros (Thugs) and stars Jose Luis Manzano as “El Jaro” a true infamous folk hero who with his underage punk posse snatch purses, cars, roll gays. break into store windows, rob people at cemeteries. He has a tattoo on his hand that means “death to the police and long live crime.” The director picked up the lead in a bar and moved him in with him and made him a star, but drugs got the better of both in real life.
The other two films are El Pico, set in Bilbao, again starring Manzano as Paco the heroin-addict son of a Captain of the Civil Guard. (There’s something pretty disturbing watching these kids shoot up and knowing it’s for real). And El Pico 2 continues Paco’s sordid story, trying desperately to kick the habit again while a sleazy journalist is stirring up trouble. There’s a lengthy prison sequence in this that is outrageous. The homoeroticism that Eloy de la Iglesia brings to this exploitation genre stands these films apart. They are shocking, riveting films that need to be seen. These three films were collected on a sensational Blu-ray from Severin.
The second film in Iglesia’s “Quinqui” films is now available on Blu-ray from Altered Innocence– Colegas (Pals), once again starring Jose Luis Manzano. This was actually released in the US in 1987. Set in the poor Spanish tenements, Manzano plays Jose, a sweet kid forever looking for work whose best friend is neighbor Antonio (Antonio Flores). Jose is also dating Antonio’s sister Rosario (played by Flores’ real-life sister Rosario Flores). When Rosario gets pregnant the boys try to come up with harebrained schemes to raise the money for the abortion.
They buy a switchblade and unsuccessfully try their hand at robbing a store and even try to hustle some older gay men at a sauna, with a less than satisfactory outcome.
Eventually they meet an unsavory criminal who coerces the boys into becoming drug mules and tries to talk them into selling the baby. Iglesia once again delights in interjecting gratuitous male nudity which is always wonderfully perverse. But he also really captures the flavor of the urban youth scene at that time without condescension and with real humor and heart. Manzano is really appealing in the film, which makes it even more heartbreaking when you consider what really happened to him in real life- Jose was arrested for a robbery and sentenced to 8 months in prison. He supposedly went through rebab to kick his heroin habit only to be found dead in director Iglesia’s apartment from an overdose. Social Services of Madrid City Council covered his burial expense. Another tragedy in the cast was Antonio Flores who was a hit singer/songwriter, but his mother’s death sent him into a depression spiral and he died of an overdose in 1995.
The Blu-ray of Pals comes in a limited 1,100-unit slipcover edition that’s a doozy.
