It’s been a few minutes already waiting seated. The fault is not with the organization responsible for making everything run smoothly for the premiere of Cronos at the Liceu. The problem lies with those of us who have been shaping the seat for quite some time because we are excessively punctual. And for the excessively and nervously unfortunate punctual ones, it happens that they even have to wait for those who are serenely punctual, those who are punctual as they should be, those who arrive just one minute before the appointed time. So until the film about the Mossos d’Esquadra’s operation to confront the jihadists who attacked on August 17 and 18, 2017, in Barcelona’s Rambla and Cambrils is shown, you either daydream or have to find distractions.
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Beforehand, the photocall was entertaining, with director Fernando González Molina and actors Enric Auquer, Diana Gòmez, and Mònica Lòpez leading the whole team. They parade before the cameras in groups and individually. It gives you something to ponder: so this is the director, this is the one who plays the one assigned to Ripoll, that other one plays the chief of the Mossos, and that one the operations chief, and the one over there represents the one who shortly after became the spokesperson for the Government.
But the photocall is in the past. We find a way to pass the time before the movie starts by taking advantage of the crowd in the Liceu stalls: identifying from the first floor who among them are police officers. It is assumed there will be quite a few, all invited for the film…. It’s entertainment like any other. Like when, sitting behind your parents in the car, you passed the time on the road by counting how many yellow vehicles you crossed. Or how many had license plates ending in eight. We know there are Mossos. Many. They told us in the hall. But the game is a failure. Only the bodyguards of authorities like the Interior Minister, Núria Parlón, or the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, are identifiable. And because they don’t hide. But the rest are hard to recognize. It’s so easy at demonstrations, with those baseball caps (the ones with a single visor) and/or earpieces or headphones well inserted in the ear.
There is no opera at the Liceu tonight, nor does Silvio Rodríguez perform as he did three days ago, but the atmosphere is equally that of a great occasion. There is chatter and lively conversation among groups. Calm in the seats arrives when journalist Helena García Melero presents the film. Silence bursts out right after, when the images start to run on the screen.
What explodes first is a blast in Alcanar and the calm in Barcelona, on the Rambla. There are sirens and running that mark both the start of the film and the Cronos police operation. The gaze is fixed on the screen. The attention is logical in the stalls, because this beginning in media res throws the viewer directly into the action, into the disaster caused by the multiple vehicle attack along the Rambla.
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The lump in the throat forms immediately, then. It is impossible to take emotional distance from the events. Even more so for the victims’ families invited to the premiere. The Liceu is also just a few meters from where the van stopped. The memory revives. In everyone present today, even though nine years have passed since the tragedy. The events left many open wounds.
The tensions of all kinds give no rest to the viewer of Cronos. Maybe they find only one moment to distract themselves and free themselves from the plot if they entertain themselves by checking if the fictional Major Trapero resembles the real one. Conclusion: physically, not much, but that cadence in the speech of bueno pues molt bé pues adiós, the tone and that way of expressing himself is nailed by Pablo Derqui.
In the end, ovation. Before a film based on real events and that everyone knows how it ends, success lies in whether it manages to move you. It seems so, because the applause is tender. They are dedicated to the whole team that made the film possible. They are dedicated to the victims’ families present at the Liceu.
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