Film Exposure

Two years ago, Spanish brawler I’ll Crush Y’all reinvigorated Iberian pulp cinema with a sort of unruly, communicative energy that had been mostly absent from the country’s output in terms of action filmmaking. Its star Mario Mayo is back this year with Luger, a different beast of a film that fuses its action in a narrative more akin to thrillers, tackling both the country’s past and present struggles while attempting to deliver a taunt journey through Madrid’s dangerous industrial areas.

Rafa and Toni are two fixers who make a living by taking small jobs intimidating people. One day, they’re tasked with retrieving the car of a businessman, only for them to find a stolen Luger pistol from WW II in the boot. The gun quickly becomes the object of a bloody manhunt.

For his debut feature film, director Bruno Martín banks on proven thriller aesthetics: a combination of naturalistic cinematic style and a duo of actors with mugs made for the screen. David Sainz and Mario Mayo are both rugged, charismatic, perfectly suited for the job. Their physical presence immediately becomes a central part of Martín’s framing decisions. While the film contains its fair share of conventional shot/reverse-shot setups, it also often chooses to either step back to have the actors’ full bodies in the frame (even in dialogue scenes) or temporarily forgoes cuts to offer dizzying long takes that seamlessly navigate from one character to another to turn conversations into pots of boiling tension.

Often handheld, the camera aims at propelling the viewer into the cold, treacherous industrial underbelly of Madrid, a place one would not suspect of harbouring so many shady characters ready to break some bones, stitch up a few injuries, or assert the market value of a Nazi pistol in the middle of the night for a quick buck. The protagonist, Rafa, is out of place, both in that he is an immigrant in Spain, but also because he wants to leave this life behind. He dreams of a new start in Australia while his stepbrother Toni gives out to him for wanting to abandon him and his father. The film isn’t so much about filial honour as it is about fate forcing these characters to make decisions that propel their lives into infinite loops, as if cursed to see history repeat itself no matter what they do.

A lot of what they do is play tough guys, and sometimes, they have to actually throw a few punches. The action in Luger is not the main selling point, but it is always used with intent and purpose. The film opens with Toni wrecking a couple of fools with extreme ease, only to later shift gears and demonstrate that really, no one has a monopoly on violence, which can befall anyone. The fights are messy but legible, brutal but purposely not spectacular. They are first and foremost grounded, enhancing the naturalistic style of the film. One fight in an office turns an unexpected turn for the tragic, forcing a new direction on the narrative. This happens several times in the story, the characters barely able to navigate the downward spiral they find themselves in. The final bus fight scene is of course a highlight, and perhaps the best example of the loss that comes with violence, and the accursed decisions it forces people to make.

The luger/Nazi plot works as a reminder of Spain’s past, but Martín does not linger on it narratively, the pistol simply becoming a driving force for the story. There is one brilliant, tense scene set in a Nazi bar, and Rafa’s mere presence there is enough; the intent could not be clearer. The plot then smartly recentres on Rafa and Toni’s mishaps, keeping consistent with its stylistic approach.

Have you ever wondered what would a gritty urban thriller/beat ’em up look like if it were set in Madrid and treated violence realistically? It would look like Luger: slick, a little unpredictable, brutal, and ultimately kind of devoid of hope.

Luger – World premiered at Fantastic Fest 2025; no European release date yet
Directed by Bruno Martín
With David Sainz, Mario Mayo, Ana Turpin