El penalti más largo del mundo (2005)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Roberto Santiago

Writers:

Roberto Santiago (writer)
Osvaldo Soriano (short story)

Release Date:

9 March 2005 (Spain)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot Keywords:

Trainer | Doorman | Football

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Fernando Tejero	...	Fernando
María Botto	...	Ana
Marta Larralde	...	Cecilia
Carlos Kaniowsky	...	Santos
Javier Gutiérrez	...	Rafa
Enrique Villén	...	Adrián
Fernando Cayo	...	Bilbao
Héctor Colomé	...	Rodríguez
Luis Callejo	...	Khaled
Cristina Alcázar	...	Julia
Benito Sagredo	...	Román
Joxean Bengoetxea		(as Josean Bengoetxea)
Adrián Portugal
Chani Martín	...	Arbitro
Alejandro Casaseca	...	Numero 11

Also Known As:

The Longest Penalty Shot in the World (USA) (festival title)

Runtime:

Spain:100 min | Argentina:100 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Ensueño Films

Trivia:

When the trailer was shown on cinemas, most of the public thought it was the second part of Días de fútbol.

Movie Connections:

Follows Il rigore più lungo del mondo (2004)

"Viva el Estrella Polar!"

"El penalti más largo del mundo" is a good comedy about amateur football in Spain. I think this movie is very original and has a great sense of humor. Football as an issue to a movie is not very common, but in this particular case it works very well, because it's just the "setting" to a great comedy about human relationships…

Fernando (played by Fernando Tejero) is a perfect loser. He's the second goalkeeper of a local team but he has never played before, just because he can't play! He just doesn't know how to keep the ball from the net! Suddenly he has an impossible mission: to defend a penalty! The football field is invaded by the public and the referee delays the penalty to the next week… The plot is about that week and the "adventures" of the "poor devil" Fernando training to stop the penalty.

The movie is very funny, hilarious at parts, believe me. I don't know how to explain it very well, but one of the features that made me laugh the most was, beside the funny scenes, the Castilian slang used in this movie. I really don't know why but I find the Spanish language a little bit funny (in a good way…) by itself, and some of the slang used turned it even more comic. Please don't get me wrong but it really made me like this movie even more, and feel, on the other hand, that it seems that just the European cinema (the French, Spanish, Italian…) can make some great comedies made out of the most common issues of our everyday life. I think the European comedies have something special, a different touch, a different way to manage some issues that give them a very particular sense of humor. They're very simple; they transform the most common circumstances in graceful hilarious moments; and they don't need any "special effects" to make you laugh, because they are real, humanistic, and have no exacerbations! I've felt this before with some French movies and now I feel it again in this good Spanish comedy…

Very nice movie!