Eloy de la Iglesia’s biggest box office hit was made in a rough, neo-realist style suitable to its gritty themes of drug addiction, juvenile delinquency and Basque nationalism in 1980s Spain. The cold, dark atmosphere of the Basque country is a perfect backdrop to this tragic tale of love, friendship, and heroin addiction. Paco and Urko, two Bilbao teenagers, are firm friends despite their disparate backgrounds – Paco’s family are right wing and traditional, Urko lives with his single father, a left wing pro-independence politician. Partly they bond over a shared desire for Betty, a young Argentinian prostitute, but most of all over a shared addiction to heroin.
