NAVAJEROS
(KNIFERS)
dir. Eloy de la Iglesia, 1980
95 min. Spain.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, MAY 4 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, MAY 30 – 10 PM

Based on the exploits of the real life “El Jaro,” a Madrid gang leader whose gang contained over 30 young boys before his death at the age of 16, NAVAJEROS is the first film by Eloy de la Iglesia to star his future muse and lover, José Luis Manzano, in an electric and iconic performance. Portraying José Manuel Gómez Perales, alias el Jaro, with both delicacy and rage, the non-professional actor would become a sensation in Spain, going on to appear in 4 more Quinqui titles (Colegas, El Pico, El Pico 2, and La Estanquera de Vallecas) for Eloy de la Iglesia.

It features an eccentric soundtrack of Rock Urbano (Burning), Rumbas (Los Chichos) and even Western Classical music, which scores a gleefully violent rumble in the Retiro Park in a nod to Stanley Kurbrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. The tension and interplay between styles and genres animates the film’s most daring and remarkable sequences and De la Iglesia’s camera captures a richly detailed picture of teen delinquency and youth culture. Shot on location around Madrid and its poor outskirts, it brims over with authentic raw performances and fearless depictions of transgressive sex and drug use that for years would appear in and define De la Iglesia’s work, as much as his political convictions and his cinematic commitment toward Spain’s marginalized youth.