Paco León turns 'The Wizard of Oz' into a modern and emancipatory delirium

Expectations were crumbling one by one.

It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios for the end of the thirties, but

(1939) did not get anywhere near the expected box office.

It had it all: a star cast led by Judy Garland, an ambitious investment - MGM acquired the rights to the novel by L. Frank Baum for $75,000 and the total cost of the film was almost three million euros - and a review that hasn't been this excited since

, produced by rival Disney two years ago.

The film directed by Victor Fleming had to wait almost 20 years to recover his outlay, but once it landed on television in 1956, there was no turning back.

It is estimated that, in the United States alone, more than 383 million households watched it in its first 25 years of annual broadcast.

In Spain it would go through theaters in 1945, but it was not until decades later that the small screen knew how to take advantage of its virtues.

Paco León (Seville, 47 years old) still remembers the first night, in the early eighties, that he experienced the initiatory journey of that girl named Dorothy glued to the small screen.

“She fascinated me because she didn't look like the rest of the things that a kid like me could see on television back then.

It has the solid and effective structure of a story.

It is a classic story that avoids the clichés that usually invade this type of story: the hero is a girl, there is no prince or love story to save her, and her best friends are a group of disabled people: one without a heart, the other lacks the brain and a third that lacks courage.

And, curiously, in that diversity is where everyone finds salvation.

It is not difficult to guess that from a recent review, specifically during the pandemic, the actor and director would decide to make this fable his inspiration for

, the film that premieres at the San Sebastian Film Festival and will hit theaters on September 23 and the Netflix platform, worldwide, on the 30th of the same month.

But beyond the skeleton, any resemblance to the original fiction is a pure metaphor: in this new interpretation, the scarecrow is a young worker from a junkyard in the suburbs (Ayax Pedrosa), the tin man is a sad executive in a gray suit stiff (Luis Bermejo), the lion is the loose verse of a Nigerian family (Wekaforé Jibril) and the witches, played by Carmen Maura and Carmen Machi, wear haute couture and designs from the Japanese school.

In the early 2000s, he became famous imitating Raquel Revuelta in 'Homo Zapping' or lighting up the screen as Luisma in 'Aída'.

Few could have imagined that he would become one of the most successful and restless creators of the Spanish audiovisual industry.

Here, with a Fendi coat and pants. Pablo Zamora

Paco León wears jumpsuit from Palomo Spain and Prada boots.

Dora, with a Marni dress, Manolo Blahnik shoes and Julia Monereo earrings. Pablo Zamora

The film is a tribute to the classic, but escapes into a universe of saturated colors and gestures as hilarious as Ester Expósito modeling toad skin bags, speeches by beauty company executives about principles they will never defend, and a final party in the one that many viewers will want to dive into.

León warns that it is a "free and personal" interpretation of the original story, born of long conversations with the Riojan screenwriter Javier Gullón.

“My plans were to go to Los Angeles for a while, which is where Javier lives.

But when the world blew up, we started doing everything

and to think what history could allow us to build a complete universe.

I was looking at options with stories by [Antón] Chejóv and [William] Shakespeare, but when I rediscovered

I made the final click”, he says, clicking.

By then, she only had two things clear: that the dance, music and fashion would be as protagonists as the characters, and that the Dorothy who hits her shoes was already decided.

Dora Postigo (Madrid, 18 years old), known musically as Dora, had already commissioned him to direct the video clip for her song

, but she never suspected that this time the proposal would be to put her in front of the camera in a two-hour film.

“It was an afternoon when Paco came home and told me that he wanted us to do something together for the soundtrack of his new project.

But, after a couple of explanations, he let me know that he really wanted me to be the lead.

He gave me a weak laugh, but I looked at my father and realized that the thing was serious, ”he blurts out, gesturing with his hands.

It is precisely her father, Diego Postigo, who puts the musical signature on the project, with brushstrokes as disparate as a peculiar collaboration with C. Tangana,

chords by the artist Wekaforé Jibril and Dora's own voice as the central axis.

Director and actress embrace effusively when they meet in a photographic studio on the outskirts of Madrid.

They haven't seen each other in a few months —she just got back from an interrail trip after finishing high school—, but it's clear that the affection cemented in the filming remains intact.

"I'm not sure there is a director in this world who makes things as easy for you as Paco," Dora reasons about the scene minutes later.

“In the end, I was a very young girl who had been making my music as she had been wanting and I felt safe in that area, but starting to act was another story.

I had seen the original movie several times and it freaked me out, but it was he who let me do it freely and helping me every day with this or another thing.

I can write a song

vomit what I feel that day and decide later whether to work on it or throw it away, but on a shoot you have to be physically and mentally focused and without distractions”.

At first, Dora herself saw the task as almost impossible, but during the 10 weeks that the filming lasted, it ended up being almost addictive.

“Paco is not a typical director, just as he is not as a person.

He does not enjoy giving orders, but making you enjoy your hand.

If you add that he understands diversity like no one else, it is difficult for something bestial not to come out of you, ”she settles.

but making you enjoy your hand.

If you add that he understands diversity like no one else, it is difficult for something beastly not to come out of you, ”he ditches.

but making you enjoy your hand.

If you add that he understands diversity like no one else, it is difficult for something beastly not to come out of you, ”he ditches.

Wekaforé arrived in Barcelona almost five years ago and in this time has become one of the most prominent figures on the city's alternative scene.

Wekaforé Jibril is a musician, fashion designer, owns a clothing brand, and even runs a modeling agency.

In the image, with pants by Álvaro Calafat. Pablo Zamora

Ajax.

Together with his brother Adrián, he forms the hip hop duo 'Ayax y Prok', a key player in the current national scene.

In 2018 he released the solo feature 'Cara y Cruz', which went triple platinum.

His role in 'Rainbow' is his second foray into the cinema, after participating in 'Hasta el cielo', by Daniel Calparsoro.

Here, with a Louis Vuitton skirt.Pablo Zamora

Louis Bermejo.

In 2009 he received his first Goya nomination for best new actor.

He didn't win.

Six years later he was no longer a revelation.

Bermejo, who is also a theater director, took the statuette for his role in 'Magical Girl'.

In the image, with a Prada shirt. Pablo Zamora

She is seconded by the actor Luis Bermejo (Madrid, 53 years old), who had already coincided with León in

(2016).

“I was with a play at the Teatro de La Abadía, and in one of the breaks he called me to tell me about the idea he was hatching.

I thought it was funny, but I liked how he wanted to tell a contemporary Oz, because I didn't remember anything like it.

Over time I understood that, if talent is to do something in particular better than others, Paco's is to conceive things with a sieve that you or I would be incapable of, ”he says.

Bermejo, who began to act motivated by referents such as Alfredo Landa or Luis García Berlanga, alludes to an Oz where the tin man wears a suit that is too big for him, the witches are never named as such and a high of illegal substances derives in visions of Michael Jackson.

“Paco is not afraid to distance himself from what doesn't interest him or to include the most Martian idea in the world if that night has taken away his sleep.

He is what I call a great disseminator of the community, because he is capable of making you understand his most extreme craziness and make it consistent with you, making you feel part of his universe”.

Bermejo's long career, with fifty series and films behind him —and as many other plays—, is far from that of Ayax Pedrosa (Granada, 31 years old), whom the director embraces upon arrival at the session of photos like a prodigal son.

He had only shot one film before this project, but he manages to display in

the freshness of a novel together with the claw of a veteran.

Raised in the streets of the Granada town of Albaicín, he has been composing rap for more than a decade with his brother under the name of Ayax y Prok.

His latest album,

was forged while he was preparing the film and television adaptation of

, the film by Daniel Calparsoro with Miguel Herrán and Carolina Yuste, released in 2020. “I haven't been home for a year, but when I watched Paco's movie at home the other day, I had to watch it twice to believe it and to understand everything this guy has built in those two hours”, he reveals.

An emotional factor is added to this adventure: the same day that León officially offered him to participate in the film, Ajax met his current partner.

“My first conversation with her was about that: the best coincidence that has ever happened to me.

Because Paco also didn't audition me for this or any other role, he told me he didn't know anyone else who could do something so crazy”, he recalls, alluding to the bond created, similar to the one Quentin Tarantino felt in his day with Harvey Keitel, the the only one, according to him, who could play Mr. Wolf of

(1994).

His task was to turn a brainless youth—L. Frank Baum's scarecrow—into a blatant adult.

“With the difference that my character, Muñeco, was this time a violent guy with no name or origin chained to a boss who exploits him from dawn to dusk.

So far, so good, but Muñeco is actually a tender and adorable guy who empathizes with pain and just wants to protect his own, knowing when the only thing you lack in life is some lithium, ”jokes the rapper.

"That crazy balance was what I was obsessed with nailing, and since I knew it was for me, I didn't sleep until the last scene", he promises excitedly.

A similar mission faced the multifaceted Wekaforé Jibril, a Nigerian regular on the Barcelona cultural scene since he landed in Spain when he came of age.

is his debut as an actor.

“I began to collaborate on the soundtrack, and on one of my trips to Madrid he spoke to me for the first time about León.

I went to an office to do a test and soon he called me to tell me that he was mine”, he says with an open smile.

Wekaforé, with Valentino shirt and pants and his own earrings. Pablo Zamora

Dora.

At the age of 13, she was already working with the renowned producer Pional.

She then she still sang in English —she later switched to Spanish—, she had not debuted as a model or played Dorothy in a version of 'The Wizard of O'z.

Here, with a Loewe dress and Julia Monereo earrings. Pablo Zamora

Paco León wears jumpsuit from Palomo Spain and Prada boots.

Dora, with a Marni dress, Manolo Blahnik shoes and Julia Monereo earrings. Pablo Zamora

The idea of ​​putting together a film in which almost all the responsibility falls on inexperienced performers in front of the cameras might sound risky to anyone, but this has not exactly been a problem in Paco León's filmography.

After tanning in the Canal Sur series

(1999) or the

Telecinco Moncloa

(2001), León became one of the most recognizable faces in national fiction with the tender and hilarious Luisma de

(2005-2014).

"That was crazy, but I've wanted to tell homegrown stories for a long time, too," he recalls.

Although he made his directorial debut with the series

(2006), it was his own mother who kept the ace up her sleeve for his best hit as director to date.

(2012) would be a turning point in Spanish fiction;

not only because of the incomparable strength of Carmina Barrios —again inexperienced in front of the spotlight— as a working-class woman capable of turning the costumbrista tragedy comical, but also because of León's revolutionary bid to release the film simultaneously in theaters, platforms and DVD.

“It all started with some tweets where I asked people if they would pay one amount or another to see it, and that Sunday I found thousands of responses from people asking me.

Some of them lived in Mexico or had the closest cinema 200 kilometers away, and I didn't understand what was wrong with giving them the same privilege as the others.

So, with all of them, I threw myself into it.”

The decision met with multiple criticisms, but it worked for León: the collection, of more than 660,000 euros —it had only cost 30,000—,

(2014), which would be followed, among other projects, by the series

(2018), about Ava Gardner's Madrid adventure, for Movistar+.

This year is the tenth anniversary of the original Carmina —who enjoys her small cameo in

and Paco's assessment is just as emotional as it was then: “Ours was an industrial experiment, David against Goliath in the Spanish style and with cinema .

There were things about the market and about

that I didn't share then and I don't share now.

There were some

, but it was worth it.

And, thanks to that, I learned a little about this world, but a lot about myself.”

01:07

Trailer for the movie 'Rainbow'

Towards mid-afternoon, the photographer has shot images of the protagonists and Dora talks with Paco, both dressed in black and white striped suits.

The hugs are repeated, some farewells and the burning look of the director to the five main musicians of his orchestra.

Before putting on his shirt and jeans again, León makes a final reflection: “In a scene in the film, a character tells Dora that there is only one thing stronger than fear: curiosity.

Well, that's the fun of my story.

I could perfectly continue presenting finery dressed as Raquel Revuelta like I did in

.

But for now, as curiosity moves me and I get bored with myself every day, I always prefer to start over.

And that, clearly, is this

: a new beginning for a restless artist.

Photography assistants: Daniel Carretero and Brian J. Páez.

Styling assistant: Diego Serna.

Makeup and hairdressing: Rubén Marmol @Kasteel Artist Management.

Production: Maia Hoetink.

Fashion director: Juan Cebrián.

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