Holly Jones Inspired by the simmering one-man rebellion that kicked off a tremendous tide-change in Barcelona, writer-director Marcel Barrena (“Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea”) and Spain’s The Mediapro Studio have begun filming “The 47.” TMS has released first look images.
The premise centers on social activist bus driver Manolo Vital, played by three-time Goya Award winner Eduardo Fernández (“Smoke & Mirrors”), as he grows increasingly outraged at the abject neglect faced by immigrant communities outside the city’s center, whose neighborhoods, peeled by immigrants from Extremadura and Andalusia, had only just achieved running water.
Stonewalled by the City Council, Vital seizes a bus used on Barcelona’s #47 line and extends its route to Torre Baró in an attempt to prove that the vehicle can safely service the outlying communities in need. “What the film shows is that this good man tried to convince everyone that it was feasible.
The contempt of the system towards those communities of immigrants living in the slums is what ignited the spark. The spark of hijacking the bus was born from that unwillingness or inability of the system to respond to the most basic needs,” producer and Mediapro Group co-founder Jaume Roures told Variety. “In the end, history is always changed by individuals through unexpected acts outside of the norms,” he added.
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