Cinemaattic and Scalarama presents… Justino, A Senior Citizen Killer.
A special film requires a special venue. Cinemaattic takes ‘Justino’ to ‘The Dockers’.
For Scalarama this year we have put together two of the things that we, at Cinemaattic, were more eager to do. One, screen ‘Justino, A Senior Citizen Killer’ in Edinburgh. Two, to do it in a place that makes justice to the authentic spirit of the film, and that is Leith Dockers Club, the heart of Leith, the Dockers. We were mad to host a screening in The Dockers and we invite ye all to join this brutal celebration of subversive Spanish black comedy.
Justino, un asesino de la tercera edad (1994, 96 min. English subtitles), a Spanish black comedy –or “esperpento”– that tells the story of a retired bullfighter (“puntillero”, not “torero” to be more precise) who begins a new career as a serial murderer.
Justino, A Senior Citizen Killer
Sunday 9th September at The Leith Dockers Club, 17-17a Academy St, Edinburgh EH6 7EE
Doors open 7pm, film starts 7.30pm
Once again the celebration Scalarama across the UK allow us to dig in some of our favourite cult films of Spanish cinematography, bringing horror, trash, classics or simply unknown gems. In previous years we rediscovered films like ‘Arrebato’ (Rapture) by Ivan Zulueta, ‘Accion Mutante’ (Mutant Action) by Alex de la Iglesia or ‘La Cabina’ (The Telephone Box) by Antonio Mercero and some other more known – Luis Buñuel’s ‘Exterminating Angel’– , this year we wanted a challenge…and by far, Justino, A Senior Citizen Killer was non-democratically non-agreed by all as the perfect choice for Scalarama Edinburgh.
We also wanted to use a “venue that makes sense” for a film like Justino, somewhere still authentic in a city that blindly embraces mass mainstream cultural offers, Student Dorms and Luxury Flats development projects. And this time it was unanimously agreed that it was time to take Cinemaattic to The Dockers, the heart and soul of Leith community.
La Cuadrilla’s 1994 Justino: A Senior Citizen Killer (Justino, un asesino de la tercera edad) is a cult Spanish film about a retired “puntillero” (the man who finishes off the dying bull in the bullfighting ring with a stab in the neck), who begins a new career as a serial murderer. Justino engages with Spain’s vast tradition of black comedy, brimming with backwards glances and allusions to its rich heritage.
If the film at first seems like a simple rehashing of Marco Ferreri’s The Little Coach, it soon becomes clear that its references extend in many different directions, engaging such distinct works as Edgar Neville’s 1946 detective thriller The Crime of Bordadores Street and Fernando Fernán-Gómez’s 1986 Goya Award winner Voyage to Nowhere. Justino takes full advantage of its having been made after the end of the censorship restrictions of the Franco regime, and the creative duo La Cuadrilla (directors Santiago Aguilar and Luis Guridi) revive the figure of the retired man that appears in The Little Coach and Luis García Berlanga’s Not on Your Life. (Film Society Lincoln Center)
La Cuadrilla 1994 , Spain
Spanish with English subtitles
93 minutes
