The Pedal-Push Car

The Pedal-Push Car is a 2003 drama film directed by Ramón Barea starring Álex Angulo, Rosana Pastor, and Pablo Gómez. It is a Spanish-Portuguese co-production.

Plot

Set in the 1959 Holy Week in Francoist Spain, the plot follows nine-year-old Pablito, who grows a fondness for a pedal-push car that his parents cannot afford. He comes to interact with and develop a deeper understanding of his family in the mother side, and his family on his father side.

Production

Ramón Barea wrote the screenplay along with Felipe Loza. The film is a Spanish-Portuguese co-production by Trafico de Ideas, Malvarrosa Media, Alokatu, and Take 2000, with a crew primarily consisting of Basque and Valencian professionals. It features Esperanto-language dialogue. It was fully shot in the centre of Valencia and its surroundings.

Release

The film opened the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival in November 2003. Distributed by Golem Distribución, it was released theatrically in Spain on 16 January 2004.

Reception

Jonathan Holland of Variety declared the film "an utterly convincing, gently comic sketch of an era refracted through the candid gaze of its child protagonist".