Lute: Forge On or Die

In nineteen-sixties Spain, Eleuterio Sánchez, the son of a poor family from the itinerant community known as quinquis, serves six months in prison for stealing chickens. When he gets out he settles on the edge of Madrid, works as a pedlar and lives in a shantytown. The small crimes grow, and everything changes when a bystander is killed during the robbery of a jeweller's. From there it is escape, capture and escape again. Under the nickname El Lute he became the most wanted man in Franco's Spain and a legend for his breakouts. The real turn in the story comes after this first film: in prison Sánchez learned to read and write, earned a law degree, wrote two books and was pardoned and released in 1981. Vicente Aranda's film is taken directly from his own book, and a second part the following year completes the account. Imanol Arias has the lead.