The Telephone Box

A man goes out one morning. A new telephone box has been placed in the square; the workmen have only just installed it. He steps inside. The door closes and does not open again. People gather outside; they pull, they push, they try to break the glass, and nothing works. The fire brigade comes, the crowd grows, everyone laughs. In the end a lorry arrives and takes the box away with the man inside it. Antonio Mercero directs. José Luis López Vázquez takes the lead. It was made for television and runs about thirty five minutes. The film has one rule: the man never speaks and nobody explains anything to him. No reason is given at any point. The behaviour of the crowd is the real subject. People first want to help, then start to watch, then to enjoy it, and finally lose interest. It was made at the end of the Franco period and was widely read as a political allegory; the director never said so outright. It won an international television award and was shown widely outside Spain. The final section is closed and disturbing; where the man is taken and what is there is given in a single image. Who it is for: viewers who like short form black humour and allegorical narrative. Who it is not for: it is claustrophobic, there is no hope, and the premise rests on a single idea.