Two Thumbs Up For One-Armed Trick

Spanish cinema has had no shortage of brilliance in its court as of late. Director Pedro Almodovar successfully breached the mainstream with works like Talk to Her and Bad Education, paving the way for a flood of new talent. One-Armed Trick is no exception to this trend.

Immersed in a culture of drugs and poverty, a hip-hop artist struggles to realize his dream in this award-winning 2008 drama. Faced with an array of obstacles including thieving relatives, junkie friends and a severe case of cerebral palsy, main character Quique strives to build a recording studio. But when particularly tough times hit, can he and his needle-happy friend pull it together?

Rather than the classic story of a down-and-out gangster pulling himself out of poverty, Quique has no troubled past to escape, only the dreadful situation that he was born into. Nor does anyone else have an easy go at life in the dilapidated slums of Barcelona. The drug use is rampant and unglamorous, and, as Quique so poetically notes, “family is shit.”

Juan Manuel Montilla, one of Spain’s top hip-hop artists—known by his stage name, El Langui—plays Quique. He uses humor to laugh at his misfortunes and promote positivity in troubled homes like those in the slums. He is also a member of the hip-hop group, La Excepción, which revolutionized Spain’s hip-hop scene and won Best Disc of the Year in Rolling Stone Magazine.

He debuts as an actor in One-Armed Trick, and his talent is exceptional both in his acting and music. The only catch is that the English subtitles fail to translate any of his lyrics, leaving those of us unable to understand Spanish in the dark.

A great deal of beauty lies in the music for this film, not only in the words of Montilla, but in the somber beats dealt out by composer Woulfrank Zannou. Winning the Goya Award for Best Original Song, Zannou doesn’t let us down with the sheer number of powerful and melancholy hip-hop songs he produces. You can expect few lyrics, but plenty of heavy beats playing over gloomy scenes of despondent gangsters wandering up and down city steps with rolled cigarettes in hand.

The film’s director, Santiago A. Zannou, Woulfrank’s younger brother, is new to the scene. Zannou nabbed the Goya Award for Best New Director with this film. His previous work includes video clips and short films, most notably Cara Sucia, also nominated for a Goya Award in 2004. These, too, revolve around Spanish music, including Barcelona Hip-Hop, a documentary focused on Barcelona’s underground music scene.

If you are a lover of good hip-hop, a connoisseur of good cinema, or you want to try your ear at some seriously profane Spanish slang, this is a film worth checking out. One-Armed Trick is screening as part of a series on contemporary Spanish cinema being put on by Northwest Film Center.