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🇪🇸 Spain /Conflict & Security

‘Cronos’ brings the wounds of the Rambla and Cambrils attacks to the screen

From La Vanguardia · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Outcome reported
  • “Cronos” reconstructs the 124 hours after the Aug. 17, 2017, attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, focusing on the emergency response.
  • Director Fernando González Molina and screenwriter Alberto Marini said they aimed to remain faithful to reality and respect the victims.
  • The film follows police officers, medical workers, political officials and ordinary citizens rather than focusing on the attackers.

Nine years after the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, “Cronos” revisits the 124 hours that followed Aug. 17, 2017, and reconstructs one of Catalonia’s largest recent police operations.

Director Fernando González Molina says the film did not begin with a desire to revisit the horror. Instead, he wanted to understand how the people who confronted it experienced those days. He initially had doubts about making the film, but accepted after agreeing on two principles with screenwriter Alberto Marini: remain as faithful as possible to reality and respect the victims.

I had many doubts about whether this film should be made.

· Fernando González MolinaThe director described his hesitation before accepting the project.

“The film is about coexistence, empathy and reconciliation,” actor Enric Auquer said. Marini described the relationship between Barcelona and the attacks as a wound that has closed without healing. He said the film could help reopen a conversation that had never been fully processed.

The film is about coexistence, empathy and reconciliation.

· Enric AuquerThe actor summarized the film’s central themes.

Rather than centering on the perpetrators, “Cronos” follows those who managed the emergency: police, medical workers, political officials and anonymous citizens. “We did not know the terrorists. Just as those who pursued them did not know them,” Marini said. “What we could tell was how ordinary people reacted to something that overwhelmed them.”

González Molina said cinema helps him understand events by placing reality before audiences from different perspectives and prompting questions. The actors also described the project as emotionally demanding. Diana Gómez plays a character inspired by Patricia Plaja, who was responsible for communications at the Mossos d’Esquadra at the time. Mónica López said she wanted to know how the production would treat the victims, memory and the story’s wider burden before accepting her role.

It is a wound that closed, but without healing.

· Alberto MariniThe screenwriter described Barcelona’s unresolved relationship with the 2017 attacks.

Auquer said the film arrives at a meaningful moment and argued that responses to violence cannot be built on hatred. The film premiered at Barcelona’s Liceu.

We did not know the terrorists. Just as those who pursued them did not know them. What we could tell was how ordinary people reacted to something that overwhelmed them.

· Alberto MariniMarini explained why the film focuses on emergency responders and civilians rather than the attackers.
About this summary

Originally published by La Vanguardia in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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