In 1992 Emilio Gómez arrives in Barcelona, he comes from Switzerland, where even flies have a residence permit, as he says, and where his parents emigrated from Alicante. In Barcelona, in a narrow street in the heart of the Gothic quarter, a bar opens: «2º Acto», which for twenty years will be one of the cult bars and a point of reference for the most heterodox and countercultural bohemia of the city. This splendid documentary, director Anna Cervera’s first work, has its starting point on November 1, 2013. That night, for the last time, the old customers meet at the bar: the «2º Acto» closes its doors . All kinds of personalities have passed through it and it has been the seat of several gatherings, such as that of ARSEC (Associación Ramón Santos de Estudios del Cannabis). Some of them parade in front of the camera, telling us how their lives are irretrievably linked to this place that was now disappearing. They are the artist Alejandro Molina, partner of the cartoonist Nazario, Quico Palomar, multidisciplinary artist and professional bohemian, George Cervantes, guru of cannabis cultivation and author of several books on the subject, Max Messerli, Swiss photojournalist based in Barcelona, the painter Corvus, an unknown genius, according to those who know him, and many others, some of them actors, clowns, musicians, chess players, others anonymous, all stoned night owls. One of them defines the clientele as parishioners of a libertarian temple and Quico Palomar says that it is «like a puddle, like the last water that will evaporate, from a rain that had been in the 70s, the hippy era, of freedom, of Franco’s death…». Even the great clown Jango Edwards frequented it and for him it meant a meeting place before social networks and a memory of the Old Hippie Days. But the documentary is not just the chronicle of a bar and its closure, it is a tribute and the vindication of a vital space, of one of the last bastions of freedom, of alternative life and culture, of art and music of an era, which fatally disappears victim of indiscriminate consumerism and a tourism that devours what it seeks. It is, as Palomar says, the debarcelonization of Barcelona.
«A la puta strasse 2º Acto» has been seen in some isolated passages, but inexplicably it has not been broadcast and it seems that it will not be broadcast on any TV. For its presentation and subsequent discussion we had its director, Anna Cervera, with Emilio, Quico and other protagonists.
Data sheet
Title: A la puta strasse 2nd act
Script and Direction: Anna Cervera
Production: De Verité Produccions
Director of photography: Gerardo García
Edition: Eduard Miró
Year: 2015
Duration: 70′