La cabina - Antonio Mercero Virtual museum

La cabina 1972

This surrealist drama is one of Mercero’s most important films, winner of the International Emmy Award. Although at first glance it appears to be a simple story, it addresses a number of delicate subjects. It received critical acclaim at home and abroad.

The film is written by Juan Jose Planz and stars José Luis López Vázquez. It tells the tale of a man trapped in a phone box, developing a Kafkaesque parable and combining it with a drama touching on different points of view.

A group of workers install a phone box in a square and a man goes in to make a call. The phone box door slams shut, and the man can’t get it open again. Passers-by try to help him, but to no avail. More and more people approach the box, until the workers come back and load the phone box with the man inside onto a truck. Finally they take him to a dump full of men trapped in phone boxes, some of whom are in a terrible state, having been in there for years. The film ends with the workers installing another phone box in the square, ready for the next victim.

The film received all sorts of different reviews, some fabulous and some not quite so good. They say that the average member of the public became afraid to use phone boxes and, despite its success, it was a long time before it was broadcast again on television. Outside Spain it was highly acclaimed: in France it was considered to be a metaphor of the Franco era, in Italy about indefinite imprisonment, and in general as an excellent Kafkaesque work.

Actors: Agustín González Martínez, Carmen Martínez Sierra, Francisco Javier Martín "Blaki", Gregorio "Goyo" Lebrero Ortega, José Luis López Vázquez, Pablo García González "Tito García"

Length: 37 minutes

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