The Bar (film)
The Bar is a 2017 black comedy thriller film directed, produced, and co-written by Álex de la Iglesia. Set in Madrid, it has the ensemble cast typical of its director, led by Blanca Suárez, Mario Casas, Carmen Machi, Secun de la Rosa, Jaime Ordóñez, Terele Pávez, Joaquín Climent, and Alejandro Awada. It is a Spanish-Argentine co-production.
The Bar was screened out of competition at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, ahead of its Spanish theatrical release on 24 March 2017 by Sony Pictures and Argentine theatrical release on 8 June 2017 by Buena Vista International.
Plot
Two people are shot dead by a sniper when they leave a bar. The streets are evacuated and the rest of the people alive in the bar come to realize someone in the group is the reason. It becomes clear that it is a operation and they are covering up the killings under the guise of a fire. Everyone inside the cafe turns against each other. A man emerges from the room in a condition. He drops to the floor but he mutters, "Do not touch me!" before dying. It becomes clear that the group is being quarantined due to the man's disease. Amparo acknowledges the man's words before dying and keeps five people from the group at bay who made contact with the man, including Elena and Israel believing them to be infected. Two others who believe to have made no contact with the man including Andrés and Sergio join Amparo and together force the five other people down in the cellar at point.The group talks about things, until Trini starts panicking in the cellar. She runs up the stairs and slips and falls down on a crate of bottles and breaks several of the bottles. Nacho realizes the liquid from the bottle is not pooling on the floor but has seeped down somewhere and they uncover the grate leading to the sewer. The grate is removed but the opening to the sewer is small. The group covers Israel with oil from bottles to help him slip through but Israel is not able to slip through the opening, and he is stuck there.
They then hear several shots coming upstairs from the bar and deduce the government has stormed in and shot Amparo and Sergio dead. They are scared and try to stay quiet so that no one realizes that they are in the cellar. The government then sets the bar on fire to disinfect it or hide all the evidence. The group start coughing as smoke begins to fill the cellar. The group all works together to pull Israel out of the opening as they realize that they will run out of air if the fire in the bar continues and they need the air from the sewer to circulate in the cellar. Trini panics again and touches the door to cellar which is hot to push it open and burns her hands.
The group waits till the government is gone and heads upstairs to find the interior of the bar burnt down and taped up from the outside. Nacho finds Sergio's gun and he picks it up and hides it in his pants without telling the others.
The group finds the man's phone in the wreckage of the bar and they are able to deduce from his messages that the man has brought in what they conclude to be four doses of vaccine made for the man's disease that have infected the group.
Israel finds the vaccines in the room, but he reminds them that the four vaccines are not enough for the five of them. Elena suggests they split the four doses equally amongst the five of them but Nacho says then the vaccine would not be effective. Israel takes out one of the doses and Nacho pulls out the gun and tells him to stop but Israel continues to inject himself with the vaccine. Nacho engages in a fight with Israel. Israel gets the hand in the fight and manages to get the gun off Nacho. Israel uses the gun to threaten the rest of the group.
The rest of the vaccines end up falling down into the cellar. Trini runs down to pick it up and ends up dropping it through the opening and down into the sewers.
Elena strips down to her garments and is covered with oil. She is able to slip through the opening. She finds the container but refuses to send the vaccines back up to the group. She says that they will use the vaccines amongst themselves and not leave any for her if she sends it up. She says she will not use the vaccine herself yet but they will have to come down to the sewer as she did.
Nacho grabs a pipe and the men all take turns in making the opening larger. Satur and Trini manage to squeeze through the opening to access the sewers. Elena explores the sewer a bit and hides the vaccine in a location.
Nacho grabs Israel and attempts to fight and drown him underwater and also get the gun away from him. The two men are submerged for some time and the group hears two shots with flashes underwater. It is Nacho who emerges from the sewer water.
The group is left with the question of who is going to be left out to be vaccinated. Elena and Satur fear Nacho as they think he killed Israel. Threatening to shoot Satur if Elena does not hand over the vaccines. They are able to talk him down and Elena starts to lead the way to where she hid the vaccine. It is dark and Satur slips and falls into the water. Trini holds and forces his head underwater to drown him so that there is no competition for the vaccine. Elena asks Nacho to shoot the gun so they can use the light to see what is going on. They see Trini holding Satur underwater. Trini stops and tries to justify her actions. Nacho says that he will shoot her instead and holds the gun to her head but is unable to do it. Trini has a moment of realization about the pointlessness of her life and so she takes the gun from him and kills herself to minimize the group's quantity with that of the vaccines.
Elena takes Satur and Nacho to where she hid the vaccines. They take the vaccines out but they hear a sound of coins being thrown. They go back to investigate and see Trini's body with coins placed over her eyes.
Israel comes out of the shadows and hits Satur on the head with a pipe and kills him. Israel chases after Elena and Nacho through the sewers. He is after Nacho as Nacho is the one who fought with him and tried to drown him earlier.
Nacho and Elena run and find a ladder to escape from the sewers. Elena starts climbing the ladder with Nacho behind her. Israel catches up and grabs hold of Nacho but Nacho manages to kick him off. Elena and Nacho continue to climb up but Israel is climbing fast and grabs a hold of Nacho. Elena drops her dose of the vaccine down into the sewer. Elena tells him to grab her hand but he tells her to grab the vaccine and tells her everything will be fine before Israel pulls him down the ladder and back into the sewer. Elena injects herself with the vaccine and pushes open the grate before climbing out of the sewers and into the streets, where she sees the bar burnt down from the outside. She walks away from the scene and into the crowd.
Cast
Production
The film was produced by Pokeepsie Films and Nadie es Perfecto along with Pampa Films, and it had the collaboration of Atresmedia Cine and Movistar+.The premise of the film was inspired by life experiences of Álex de la Iglesia and Jorge Guerricaechevarría in the bar 'El Palentino', although the film was not shot there, but in a refitted grocery store at, also in Malasaña.
Release
The Bar was presented at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival on 15 February 2017. It opened the 20th Málaga Film Festival on 17 March 2017. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing España, it was released theatrically in Spain on 24 March 2017. It made it to the slate of the BAFICI, and, distributed by Buena Vista, it was released theatrically in Argentina on 8 June 2017.Reception
of Variety declared the film "easily the worst movie I've seen at this year's Berlin International Film Festival", determining the "aggressively garish aesthetic of more-more-more " to be "just ineptitude moving too fast for you to notice it".Jonathan Holland of The Hollywood Reporter lamented that the film is "let down by a lazy script which, after the first half an hour or so, finds it as hard to escape from its self-imposed labyrinth as its characters do".
Marta Medina of El Confidencial welcomed an Álex de la Iglesia film "thrilling from start to finish" at last after so many pictures in his filmography with stretched out endings begging for euthanasia, with Iglesia proving in the film to be "the king of pathetic horror".
Mirito Torreiro of Fotogramas rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, deeming it to be De la Iglesia's best since The Last Circus selecting "the pace of the entire peripeteia" as the best thing about the film.
Carlos Boyero of El País found the film's initial charm to be "short-lived", and the ending "unbearable".