ATOLLADERO
dir. Óscar Aibar, 1995
103 mins. Spain.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

NEW 4K RESTORATION - NYC PREMIERE!

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 5 7:30PM
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 16 7:30PM
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 21 10PM
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28 10PM
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 30 5PM

This November, join us for a 30th anniversary presentation of Spanish filmmaker Óscar Aibar’s cult classic “paella western” ATOLLADERO, whose brand new 4K restoration will be making its United States premiere at Spectacle.

Set in a 2048, ATOLLADERO (which means “traffic jam” or “pileup” in Spanish) takes place in an eponymous wasteland in Texas, near the US/Mexican border. Like most small towns in this dystopian neo-America, Atolladero has succumbed to a state of feudal peonage; in this case, the town is ruled over by a disgusting 150 year-old with a taste for young boys known as The Judge (Xevi Collellmir), aided and abetted by his violently sociopathic deputy Madden, played by Iggy Pop (in a rare non-cameo acting role, conspicuously dubbed into Spanish.)

Nick (Joaquin Hinojosa) is a grizzled, seen-it-all highway patrolman who’s just trying to make it to retirement, while his idealistic young partner Lenny (Pere Ponce) has had it up to here with the corruption and misanthropy of life in Atolladero. When Lenny decides to strike out for Los Angeles, the Judge sends his minions (including some hilariously janky cybernetic police dogs) after them, and a prolonged chase sequence ensues.

Neatly organized into four chapters ("Men", "Dogs", "Guns" and "Reptiles"), the film is an expansion and adaptation of an Atolladero graphic novel written by Aibar and illustrated/designed by Miguel Ángel Martin, originally published in 1990. Aibar's feature debut as writer-director is must-see genre cinema, consistent with other antic visions emerging from post-Franco Spain such as Alex de la Iglesia’s ACCION MUTANTE and Julio Medem’s THE RED SQUIRREL. (It may also be of special interest for fans of Sergio Leone, Alex Cox, the Coen Brothers, MAD MAX, or A BOY AND HIS DOG.) But for all these signifiers, ATOLLADERO is very much its own thing, a deadpan anti-western whose gorgeous cinematography and exacting use of sci-fi effects bely an ultimately disturbing (and maybe prophetic?) depiction of desert nihilism after capitalism has eaten America, imbued with a bone-dry sense of humor.

“An original vision of redneck, white-trash America - capturing it not as it is, but how it’ll probably end up after another 50 years of brain-softening daytime talk shows.” - Shock Cinema

Special thanks to Arturo Duque, Filmoteca de Catalunya and Óscar Aibar.