At the 1981 Berlin Film Festival, a film called Hurry, Hurry drew attention as it earned the Golden Bear for best picture, prompting Carlos Saura to reflect on the gaps that separate worlds. The project, created in 1959, follows a close-knit circle of Madrid friends who turn to theft to fund a companion’s dream of becoming a bullfighter. This early work stood apart from Saura’s later, more familiar ways, offering a window into a Madrid far from his prevailing style and inviting viewers to consider how cinema can illuminate the margins of society.
Saura, renowned for directing La caza and La cousin Angélica, along with other cryptic, metaphor-laden films produced during Francoist Spain, infused a fresh course into stories about young offenders. The new project marked a departure from his prior explorations while keeping his enduring fascination with lives lived on the edge. Premiered at the Berlin festival on February 19, 1981, the film earned praise from a broad spectrum of viewers—some urging a shift away from Saura’s traditional approach, others recognizing a distinctive stylistic turn. It offered a cinematic lens that foregrounded marginality and the juvenile delinquency of Spain, signaling a broader social dimension beyond the director’s earlier work. Saura did not start from scratch; his established filmography provided a platform that made this foray both daring and recognizable. The change felt more showy than crude elements from earlier productions, yet it stayed true to the core concerns that had guided his career.
Jose Antonio de la Loma laid down a clear precedent with the El Torete trilogy, produced from 1977 to 1980, beginning with Perros callejeros in a direct, almost exploitation-driven execution. Eloy de la Iglesia, in Navajeros, drew on the adventures of El Jaro while weaving deeper Marxist sensibilities into his storytelling. Yet in earlier works such as Los placeres ocultos and El diputado, he had already mapped the underclass and lumpen realities. With the commercial success of certain titles and the critical prestige surrounding Saura, quinqui cinema came to be viewed as a social genre in its own right, offering a glance into marginalized youth through a documentary-like immediacy fused with narrative momentum.
Saura invested significant time in shaping Hurry, Hurry. He recalled gathering a trove of press clippings on similar topics as part of his research. The script evolved into a living document, enriched through collaborative sessions with the cast. Months were spent exploring neighborhoods, not merely identifying suitable nonprofessional performers but also aiming to assemble a circle of friends who shared living spaces and experiences. Rehearsals were filmed, and dialogue from the original script gradually gave way to contributions from Berta Socuéllamos, José Antonio Valdelomar, José María Hervás Roldán, and the rest of the ensemble. This process reflected Saura’s commitment to internalizing the voices of those depicted and translating their reality onto the screen through a collaborative method that respected, rather than overwrote, lived experience.
With a budget of 36 million pesetas, Hurry, Hurry was completed in nine weeks. The film solidified quinqui cinema as a vital strand within auteur cinema, blending personal vision with social inquiry. The ending features Los Chunguitos performing the song I’m staying with you, a moment that has come to symbolize a powerful love story threaded through the film’s fabric. Audiences and critics alike remember it as a defining moment of the era, a resonant note that lingered beyond the final frame. This conclusion underscored how the story wove affection and danger, resilience and vulnerability, into a compact, unforgettable portrait of a youth culture on the edge.
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