Director: Montxo Armendariz

Written by: Montxo Armendariz, Elias Querejeta

27 Horas takes place in San Sebastian, a Basque coastal town, which in this film looks grey and unpleasant. This contributes to the depressing atmosphere of the movie. The main character is the young man Jon (Martxelo Rubio) and the movie is about 27 hours in his dull-grey life, and we get to follow almost every step he takes. His whole life seems to be about finding money for drugs.

The film starts with Jon waking up in his uncle's appartment 7 o'clock in the morning. Jon lives with his uncle because his father has thrown him out of his home due to Jon's drug addiction, which he shares with his uncle. In the morning, Jon walks down to the docks where his best friend Patxi (played by Jon San Sebastian) works. After talking to his friend and getting some money from selling fish, Jon visits his girlfriend Maite (played by Maribel Verdu) in her flat. Soon Jon and Maite start to talk about Rafa (Antonio Banderas' character), who is drugdealer and apparently plays a big part of their lives. Rafa is of course the person who supplies Maite, and indirectly Jon, with drugs and she performs some "services" for him.

Back in town, Jon and many other young men in search of a job, are offered a temporary job by an older man. The pay is, however, so low that very few of men take the offer. Instead Jon visits a pub. In the pub Maite is watching a game of table soccer. Rafa is playing against two men at the same time because of his great skill. Despite this, Jon wants to play against Rafa all alone and he also succeeds in beating Rafa in a tough game, while Maite still is watching...

Back in the docks, Jon and the other unemployed men hope that they will be selected by the works manager but he picks the same men as usual. After that, Jon again goes to Maite's home. She shows him the drugs she has gotten from Rafa. Then Jon and Maite meet with Patxi and to have something to do they decide to go out rowing and catch some cuttle-fish. At sea, Patxi makes an unsuccessful attempt at persuading Jon and Maite to give up drugs. After a while they row to a small island. There Maite wants to be left alone for a while. When she doesn't come back, Jon starts to look for her. He soon finds her, seated against a tree with a cigarette in her hand. She has fainted. The two young men quickly take her back to the mainland. When they drive to the hospital, there are riots in town and young people are throwing stones at the police.

After having left Maite in the hospital, Patxi once again tries to make Jon give up drugs, but he refuses to even try. Jon walks alone back to town in search of drugs. He doesn't have any money and is told that in that case Rafa is the only person who can get him drugs. When Jon meets Rafa, he tells Jon that he knows a way from which Jon could get drugs without paying. In the presence of Rafa, Jon makes a phone call and is in that way informed of Maite's death. He then wildly starts to beat Rafa, who runs away. Despite of Maite's death due to an overdose, Jon cannot stop thinking of drugs. To fetch money he visits his old home when his father is not there. Jon's younger sister explains to him that the money is well hidden, ever since Jon stole some money from his father. Then Jon remembers that Maite's purse with drugs was left on the island. He asks Patxi to come with him to the island, but Patxi refuses to support Jon's drug addiction.

At night, back in his uncle's appartment, Jon is having withdrawal symptoms and doesn't get much sleep. 7 o'clock the following morning, Jon gets up and walks to the docks where he meets Patxi. Patxi doesn't want to leave Jon all by himself and so he finally agrees on accompanying Jon to the island. On the island Patxi finds the purse and hesitatingly he gives it to Jon. At last he is able to smoke. In the rowing-boat on the way back to the mainland, Jon passes out. Anxiously Patxi calls Jon's name over and over again, but he doesn't react. The church clock strikes ten.
THE END

27 Hours got the highest grade in all three German TV-magazines available to me. (Also in my opinion this is a very good movie, although there's not that much of a plot and it is very obvious that the film was made in the purpose of deterring young people from taking drugs.)

Antonio's role in this movie is very small, he is only seen about five minutes. But nevertheless, his role is important, because Antonio's character is often present even though he is not on screen.

Synopsis by Paula.