Outlaws (2021 film)


Outlaws or The Laws of the Border is a 2021 Spanish film directed by Daniel Monzón adapting the novel of the same name by Javier Cercas. It stars Marcos Ruiz, Begoña Vargas and Chechu Salgado.

Premise

Set in the Summer of 1978, the fiction follows Nacho, a 17-year-old student living in Girona who befriends Zarco and Tere, two young criminals.
It has been presented as a revisitation of the quinqui film genre.

Production

Penned by Jorge Guerricaechevarría, the screenplay is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Javier Cercas.
Produced by Ikiru Films, La Terraza Films and Atresmedia Cine in collaboration with and Las leyes de la frontera AIE, the film received funding from the ICAA. Netflix secured the international rights. It has a reported budget of 7 million €. Directed by Daniel Monzón, shooting lasted for 10 weeks and wrapped in November 2020. Shooting locations included Girona, Manresa, Montblanc and. Balter Gallart worked as art director and Carles Gusi as director of cinematography.

Release

The film premiered on 25 September 2021 at the 69th San Sebastián International Film Festival, bringing the festival to a closure.
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures España, it was theatrically released in Spain on 8 October 2021.
The film was set for a 22 November 2021 streaming release on Netflix, using the English-language title Outlaws.

Reception

Fausto Fernández of Fotogramas gave the film 4 out 5 stars, positively highlighting the triangle formed by the characters Nacho, Tere and Zarco.
Philipp Engel of Cinemanía gave it 3½ out of 5 stars. He wrote that the Begoña Vargas' lead performance ends up eating those from the two male lead performers'. He considered that the atmosphere "halfway" works.
Josu Eguren of El Correo gave the film 2 out of 3 stars. He considered the film to be "stimulating reflection on the gap between memory and nostalgia" so pervasive in the Spanish contemporary historical discourse but ultimately dominated by "cheating digressive monologues transformed into images".
Federico Marín Bellón of ABC gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, considering it to be "a magnificent portrait, a new and stylized look" of the era already extensively portrayed by the quinqui genre.