Short for “quincallero” (meaning “delinquent”) and pronounced “kinky”, “Quinqui” was a brutal subgenre of juvenile gang dramas produced in Spain in the 1970s and ’80s. But for Basque writer/director and outspoken gay socialist Eloy de la Iglesia (Cannibal Man, No One Heard the Scream), these three classics would become the most successful, controversial and tragically defining films of his entire career.
Jose Luis Manzano – the charismatic street kid discovered by de la Iglesia – stars in this graphic neorealist trilogy that depicts the crime, violence and drug abuse that ravaged the post-Franco nation, and led to the filmmaker and actor’s real-life addictions to heroin (and each other). Both would ultimately destroy them. The work they made together is fascinating as a representation of this gritty subgenre and their real-life relationship.
