The Spanish Film Festival is led by El 47, a powerfully simple story about a local bus driver taking a stand against fascism and discrimination

Australia Broadcast Center

14-06-2025

Filming the refugee-crisis-inspired epic Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea almost broke Spanish filmmaker Marcel Barrena.
"We were shooting on the sea with 100 refugees in the crew, during the pandemic with borders closed," the director recalls. "Our star, Danielle Schleif, was diagnosed with cancer during filming, so it was a lot."
What: A rousing biopic detailing an almost forgotten moment of working-class Catalan pride.
Directed by: Marcel Barrena
Starring: Eduard Fernández, Carla Segura, Zoe Bonafonte
Where: Screening in cinemas around the country for the Spanish Film Festival
Likely to make you feel: Like you can make a difference for your family and your community
Returning home to Barcelona after the trial by sea, he wanted to go with something gentler.
"I needed to find a story about my city, and in my main language, Catalan," he says. "So I was checking Google for stories, and I found this very strange blog about the history of metropolitan transport in the city, of buses and subways."
Joking that he was probably only the second person to ever visit the gloriously nerdy site, Barrena thanks his lucky stars he did.
On the site, he read a post about a man called Manolo Vital, which led to Barrena shooting Spanish Film Festival highlight El 47.
"It suddenly changed my life," the director says.
Despite growing up in a "very lefty, ideological family, going to a Communist public school and listening to all these musicians protesting against fascists", he had never heard of valiant community hero Vital.
He had helped build the hilly community of Torre Baró on the outskirts of Barcelona — a place of refuge for impoverished Andalusian and Extremaduran refugees fleeing fascists — with his own hands.
Despite facing brutal crackdowns by the authorities, the community flourished. But as time went on, the suburb was basically ignored by Barcelona's local government, with no paving, sewerage or public transport.
Until, that is, Vital took it upon himself to hijack the bus he drove in 1978, taking it and its passengers to the peak of Torre Baró — all to prove to authorities that it could and should be done.
"Here was this incredible working-class story that no-one had ever told before," Barrena says. "And at the end of this blog post, there was a comment from his granddaughter. And when I reached out to her, the story got bigger and bigger."
Turns out Vital, a single dad, was such a hunk in his day that a nun supporting the Torre Baró community, fell head over heels for him. Giving up the habit, Carme left the convent to marry him and help raise his daughter.
Who could resist such a story? Certainly no-one in Spain, where Barrena's big-hearted and beautiful film El 47 (so named after the 47 bus Vital drove) smashed box office records.
Mediterraneo star Eduard Fernández depicts Vital.
"He's the best actor in Spain," Barrena insists. "He's a very close friend of Javier Bardem, and the only difference between them is that Eduard cannot speak English. Otherwise, he'd be as big as Al Pacino."
Fernández loves to tackle a meaty role. He relished his turn as real-life Catalan lifeguard Òscar Camps in Mediterraneo and also pops up in another Spanish Film Festival gem, Marco.
As rousing as these roles are, Barrena says there's a much easier way to entice the lauded actor.
"He doesn't mind about money," Barrena says. "He only cares about what vehicle he gets to drive. In Mediterraneo, it was a boat and a jet ski. In El 47, it's a vintage bus."
Barrena was worried about finding the right model, but located an avid collector as diligent as that blog writer in preserving the city's transport history.
There was only one bus in all of Spain, and they almost weren't allowed to borrow it.
"This guy said, 'I cannot give you my bus because I don't trust Eduard to drive it,'" Barrena says. "It's a museum piece, and they wanted Eduard to take bus driver classes. In the end, we convinced the guy, but I have to say Eduard destroyed several wing mirrors."
The shoot was full-on, with the film convincingly depicting two distinct historical periods.
"We're in the middle of downtown Barcelona, which has changed so much over the years, so you put the camera on the bus and you drive by all these big stores like Zara, Mango and Louis Vuitton," Barrena laughs.
"Plus, the bus has no aircon and it was about 50 degrees when we were shooting. Torre Baró is at the top of the steepest hill, so we had to cheat and build another bus that could make it."
However headache-inducing the behind-the-scenes challenges were, the family at the heart of El 47 is key to its success, Barrena says.
"The story of the bus was just the MacGuffin."
That includes theatre actor Clara Segura as the indomitable Carme, and newcomer Zoe Bonafonte as Vital's daughter — the pair were both awarded in Spain's national annual Goya film awards.
"Carme quit being a nun for love in the darkest days of this fascist dictatorship, deciding to climb this mountain and share Catalan with them, when speaking the language could land you in prison," Barrena says.
A devoted Catalan theatre actor, Segura is in hot demand, but Barrena convinced her to take part in the film as the perfect sparring partner for Fernández.
Representing a truly Catalan story on the national and global stage was a big motivator for them all.
"This is the first time a Catalan movie has reached number one at the Spanish box office," Barrena says.
"It's changed everything. And the extras are all real people from Torre Baró, some of whom were friends with Manolo and Carme. They were pushing this bus up the hill."
El 47 is screening as part of this year's Spanish Film Festival.