The Contestant

Colour, 35 mm
Spain, 2006, 90 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Martín Circo Martín (the brilliant Leonardo Sbaraglia), a young, badly paid departmental assistant who teaches economics, has just won a general knowledge contest, with the biggest prize ever offered in the history of television. The prize is worth three million Euros, but there’s one catch – the winner receives his cash as “payment in kind”. Martín soon realises that to be rich is an expensive business and that he hasn’t got the money to be able to enjoy his winnings. Thus, as he gradually gets tangled up in a web of inexorable banking totality, he starts to become not only a victim, but also an economic dissident… He slowly uncovers advertising conspiracies, dodgy bank schemes, economic lies and parasites. He also finds himself reconsidering the views he imposed upon his students at the faculty...

About the director

Rodrigo Cortés (b. 1973, Orense) made his first short film at the age of 16. At 25, he came up with one of the most successful short films of the year, Yul (1998), which sparked the interest of foreign TV stations. His following title, 15 Days (15 días, 2001), entered the history of Spanish short film as one of the most successful films ever made – the film won 57 national and international awards. It also symbolically earned him two weeks in Los Angeles, where, thanks to a prize from Universal Studios, he was able to attend the Filmmaster express course. While the film 15 Days was doing the international festival circuit, Cortés continued making television commercials and video clips. The satirical comedy The Contestant is his feature debut.