Adriana Ugarte (‘Big Bad Wolf’): “I am grateful to return to a freer cinema in such a censored present”

In 2023 it receives its first Spanish production for theaters, ‘Big Bad Wolf’ hits the big screen on January 27th. Uruguayan Gustavo Hernández dares to adapt Israeli cult film ‘Big Bad Wolves’. A remake with Javier Gutiérrez, Adriana Ugarte, Rubén Ochandiano and Antonio Dechentwho become the ferocious wolves of this twisted story that mixes drama, thriller, terror and black humour. “I am grateful to be able to return to a freer cinema in this censored present in which we live”exhibits the actress.

A policeman on the edge of the law and a woman seeking revenge cross paths with an obsession to discover the killer behind the brutal crimes of several girls. Both are willing to do whatever it takes to get their confession, even if they have to take justice into their own hands. An exemplary detective will fight against time to prevent irreparable mistakes from being made and that desperate search for the truth to become the fiercest of wolves.

A version that represented a challenge, given the fame of the original film, praised by Quentin Tarantino himself. “I think, although it’s based on ‘Big Bad Wolves,’ there are a lot of things they don’t have to do and it’s a long way from that model. It has the DNA of our way of making fiction. In that sense, I think it’s another movie which I liked, brighter. I was very seduced by the mixture of genres, both as an actor and as a spectator. I really enjoyed doing it and also watching it “, comments Javier Gutiérrez in an interview with eCartelera in Madrid.

“I really liked that it’s a bold proposition. It spares no character. There was no black or white, light or dark. Everyone had, more or less, repressed their fierce wolf. It was a powerful gamble for the viewer, as it gives him an opportunity to recognize his own. It also seems to me a film that offers the possibility of creating characters in different directions. At the same time, it has an irreverent tone, which could generate laughter out of nervousness or misunderstanding in very powerful and very dramatic moments. That got my attention a lot.”adds Adriana Ugarte.

“Finally, we ask ourselves the question: who, really, is the big bad wolf in this story?”

‘Big Bad Wolf’ touches on very thorny and controversial issues, tackling a plot that shows three people who decide to take justice into their own hands, faced with a system that ends up proving to be effective, but a prisoner of the protocols of a state-linked body. The tape remains in an intermediate position where all its parts are somehow correct. “In the end, who is the ferocious wolf, of all people? In the end, won’t it be the spectator who looks at him? If one saw himself in those circumstances, what would he do? More than one would end up taking the law into their own hands, causing that internal wound which must not close. Within the little Cluedo that ends up being the film, it is interesting to find out how far its protagonists are able to go”says Antonio Dechent.

A film that aims to renew its characters. While, In the original version, all its protagonists were male, the Spanish film chooses to introduce two femalesembodied by Ugarte and Juana Acosta. “Currently, only 23% of police officers are women. That’s a very uneven number. It was important to demonstrate that too”comments Acosta, who lacked female characters in ‘Big Bad Wolves.’

“I was very surprised when I saw it. I was wondering where the women were in this story. So, the version that we do is very interesting, where the female characters are very powerful, they haven’t lost the strength that their male counterparts had in the original film. In fact, they’re the ones who end up driving the action.”adds the actress. “In a way, it refreshes it and makes it ambitious”agrees Manu Vega.

Directed by Gustavo Hernández and written by Juan Manuel Fodde Roma and Conchi del Río, ‘Lobo feroz’ stars Adriana Ugarte, Javier Gutiérrez, Rubén Ochandiano, Antonio Dechent and Juana Acosta, the cast is completed by Manu Vega, Luna Fulgencio, Fernando Tejero, José Chaves and María Alfonsa Rosso. With photography by Jon D. Domínguez and music composed by Lucía González. Produced by Luisa Gutiérrez and Ignacio G. Cucucovich. A Bowfinger International Pictures and Lobo Feroz AIE, Mother Superior, Esto Tambien Pasara and Basque Films production. Available in theaters from this January 27, by the hand of Filmax.