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Spanish Academy Award-Winning Duo David Pérez Sañudo and Marina Parés Pulido Reteam on ‘Los últimos románticos’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Seville-based La Claqueta and Basque label Irusion, co-producers of last year’s Spanish Best International Feature Film Oscar submission “The Endless Trench,” have acquired the rights to adapt Txani Rodríguez’s hit Basque novel “Los últimos románticos” and, sweetening the deal even further, have recruited one of Spain’s most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers to direct in David Pérez Sañudo.

Pérez Sañudo is also reteaming with his “Ane Is Missing” co-screenwriter Marina Parés Pulido, with whom he won a Spanish Academy Goya Award for best adapted screenplay, on the new project. Development is well underway and shooting is planned for late 2022.

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“With ‘Ane is Missing,’ David and Marina demonstrated their ability to combine genres without any difficulty and with fantastic results. They were also able to create a hypnotic protagonist full of cracks and nuance, and that is exactly what we were looking for in our adaptation of ‘Los últimos románticos,’ a team which can bring to life the exquisite atmospheres and incredible personality of Txani’s novel,” said La Claqueta head Olmo Figueredo.

“Los últimos románticos” is the story of Irune, a paper mill employee in a blue-collar town near the Basque city of Bilbao who is insecure, a bit manic and a hypochondriac. A strict adherent to her own value code, she is typically capable of dealing with the hardships of her world, often relying on old fashioned values to see her through adversity.

However, when a situations arises at the mill, Irune becomes involved, although even she doesn’t really understand how. Once drawn in, her life takes a surprise turn and an opportunity presents itself that Irune couldn’t possibly have expected.

“Los últimos románticos” proposes a personal, individual journey, the unique story of Irune at a very specific moment in her life,” Pérez Sañudo explained to Variety. “It’s a story of mourning and overcoming which is perceived in a luminous way.”

“Txani Rodríguez’s novel demonstrates a capacity for finding a smile in tragedy, humor in sadness and passion in apathy. This film strikes a fragile balance between the dramatic and the comic, but also between the individual and the collective, since the labor conflict within a paper production factory contextualizes this story and proposes an interesting debate between the old and the new, between experience and the imminent, memory and future. I feel so fortunate to be able to promote a project as exceptional as this and to work with an admirable writing and development team,” he added.

“Los últimos románticos” will be the fourth collaboration between La Claqueta and Irusion. Including the aforementioned “The Endless Trench,” the companies have also produced HBO’s “The Miramar Murders: The State Vs. Pablo Ibar” and “30 Years of Darkness” which was a major inspiration for “The Endless Trench.”

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