There are topics that seem forbidden if they are not approached in a serious and dramatic way. As if humor were not present at every moment, even the most inopportune. However, it seems that when it is used in fiction, it is because we want to trivialize it, to give it a lightness that diminishes its importance. Little by little, this cliché is collapsing, although it remains difficult. Borja Cobeaga and Diego San José demonstrated this years ago with Faith of ETA, a comedy whose protagonists were members of ETA. Of course, they suffered the anger of those who never went to see it and who found it unusual to talk about terrorism from the comedy.
It was this film that made director Guillermo Rojas understand that any subject can be treated from any perspective, even that of historical memory. He decided to approach it with humor alone at night another issue that is usually treated from a serious angle. With a tone that is not usually seen when talking about the Tejero coup of February 23, 1981. He realized that in addition, a more lasting effect is obtained with comedy, because “comedy makes you want to come back to see something, want to relive something and even reach a wider audience.
His new film, alone at night ―which arrives in theaters this Friday― tells the story of this historic day from where it is not normally done, from those who experienced it at home. There is nothing more epic than that of some labor lawyers who experience first-hand the fear of all those who had positioned themselves politically and saw that everything that had been achieved or was beginning to be achieved was faltering. Characters who speak, dialogue about the human and the divine, and who also serve as an example to this generation that changed a country or, at least, tried to do so.
This is the generation to which Guillermo Rojas’ parents belong, because before ETA Faith There was the example that was given to him and that he wanted to tell in a film. “I know 23F from what my parents told me. They experienced it in a very particular and emotional way, because my father worked in a labor law firm like the one that appears in the film. Let’s say that what I tell is a little based on their experiences and experiences, on all that fear and uncertainty that they lived at that time. The film was also born as a particular attempt to bring back to life the youth of those I love very much. Use the film as if it were a time machine. Go back to my parents’ youth and see a little bit what they were like at the time, ”explains the filmmaker.
There is also in the film a desire to build bridges with the present, to establish parallels and to see that democracy is something more fragile than it seems. That everything that has been gained can be lost with the arrival of the extreme right. These unions are a subject that Guillermo Rojas has addressed in the documentaries he has made with his production company on figures such as Antonio Machado or María Lejárraga, and which remains relevant today. Alone in the night. The funny thing is, they started writing it 12 or 13 years ago, and it’s now that it seems more current and relevant than ever.
“At that time, the political situation in Spain, which already existed before 15M, was completely different. But we were only able to edit the film very recently, because we shot it in 2023, but now it dialogues in a much more intense way than when I started writing it. We have experienced the rise of the extreme right, we see how tense the world is and how it seems that we cannot dialogue, and I think that is why the film, in a way, has gained relevance in accordance with my initial idea,” he acknowledges.
The film has a much more intense dialogue than when it was first written. We have experienced the rise of the extreme right and we see how tense the world is
Guillermo Rojas
— Director
The film thus moves from an “emotional approach” to something more political. Something that is noticeable in the presence of the role of the Argentine exile. Rojas realized during filming that the story had become something cyclical with the arrival of Milei. “My mother always tells me that she can’t believe that this is happening in the world. There is a certain disbelief. I think that our parents’ generation thought that it was like a page that they had turned forever, and that makes them not believe what is happening and makes them angry,” he emphasizes.
There is also self-criticism, and this progressive group of socialists, anarchists, Trotskyists and other left-wing factions take off their colours and, locked up, their dirty laundry comes out into the open. This satire was something the director always knew he wanted to do. “It leaves a lot of room for comedy,” he justifies. “These fights between people who seem to be one thing but then turn out to be another. These are people I know very well, and then the most dogmatic are the most sexist. We wanted to laugh a little at certain attitudes on the left. I think that even the characters say it at one point, they laugh at their contradictions and they themselves are aware of it,” he emphasizes.
While the film begins with an interesting burst of documentary footage, at the end of the credits there is a thank you that is not normally found in films. In addition to his family, friends and suppliers, Rojas remembers filmmakers like José Luis Garci, poets like Miguel Hernández and singer-songwriters like Víctor Jara.
De Garci almost wins the title, recalling that Alone in the morning which continues to be one of the best portraits of the masculinity of the Transition in the face of women who represent true progress. He believes that it is these filmmakers, poets and musicians who “had a lot of courage”. “Look at the singer-songwriters, how they were able to mobilize to give normal people more courage to face this democracy that was born.”
