Film Archive

Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle

Documentary Films - Competition 2017 / Muchos hijos, un mono y un castillo / Spain 2017

Julita always wanted lots of kids, a monkey, and a castle. After finally realizing these wishes, however, her family loses their property in the economic crisis. But they have not lost the disarming ease and kindheartedness that mark their domestic squabbling. A film chronicle with elements of absurd humor that serves as a madcap allegory for the contemporary situation in Spain.

Synopsis

“Once upon a time, there was a mother who had three wishes. Or a recently married woman who had three wishes,” laughs eloquent, 80-year-old Julita, archly adding: “The three wishes were: have lots of kids, a monkey, and a castle.” When, after six children, the longed-for monkey becomes a full-fledged member of the household, no one imagined that Julita’s middle-class family would come into money, enabling them to make the harebrained purchase of a castle… Luckily for us, 15 years earlier, the matron’s son Gustavo began filming his eccentric family. Even though since then they lost their property and castle to the economic crisis, the family members have not been deprived of the disarming spontaneity or the kindheartedness that mark their domestic squabbles. In a story with elements of absurd humor that gives an allegorical nod to the contemporary situation in Spain, we learn that the most valuable items are hidden in a box of laxatives, and that an as yet unsuspected improvement in your life may be a telescopic fork stashed in a nightstand.

Martin Horyna

About the film

90 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Gustavo Salmerón / Screenplay Gustavo Salmerón, Raúl de Torres, Beatriz Montañez / Dir. of Photography Gustavo Salmerón / Music Mastretta / Editor Raúl de Torres, Dani Urdiales / Producer Gustavo Salmerón / Production Gustavo Salmerón P.C. / Contact Gustavo Salmerón

About the director

Gustavo Salmerón (b. 1970, Madrid), actor and director, studied acting in Madrid, New York City, and Havana. In these three locations he later worked in theater and film. He has taken on more than 30 movie roles and has been directed by the likes of Julio Medem, Agustín Villaronga, Manuel Gómez Pereira, J. Luis García Berlanga, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, and Mario Camus. In 2001 he directed Salad Days (Desaliñada), which took a Best Short Film Goya from the Spanish Film Academy, as well as awards at the IFFs in Los Angeles and Chicago, and the Canal+ France Best Short. In 2002 Salmerón began filming his feature-length documentary debut about his family, Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle, wrapping it up 15 years later.