EL PICO
(OVERDOSE)
dir. Eloy de la Iglesia, 1983
105 min. Spain.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

MONDAY, MAY 8 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 19 – 5PM

The title itself contains a clever double meaning. EL PICO, the tip, refers to both the tip of the needles used by the story’s heroin-addicted youth and the peaks of the Guardia Civil’s iconic tricorn hats. It is the story of a generational conflict set amidst the larger Basque Conflict, where the teenage sons of a right-wing Civil Guard Commander and a left-wing Basque Separatist Politician battle heroin addiction in Bilbao, one of the main ports of entry for heroin during those years of unrest and transition. The depiction of addiction is graphic and unflinching, including a particularly difficult and heartbreaking scene centered around a baby born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

The third collaboration between Eloy de la Iglesia and screenwriter Gonzalo Goicoechea is a highly affecting melodrama, with standout performances by José Luis Manzano in the role of the drug-addicted son Paco, Enrique San Francisco as a sensitive artist who the aids him during his withdrawal, and José Manual Cervico in the role of Guardia Civil Commander Evaristo Torrecuardra, Paco’s father. Torrecuardra, as his last name also implies, is a conservative Catholic patriarch; a symbol of the old Spain, a Spain under Franco. Lost in new Democratic Spain, his son’s struggles force him to question his beliefs and ideals. Though Quinqui films were explicitly targeted at Spain’s youth, EL PICO proved to be popular across generations. It was De la Iglesia’s biggest box-office hit and led to EL PICO 2 just one year later.