The Bar (film)

A strange man walks into the restroom of a bar in Madrid. Without warning, two patrons are killed by a sniper when they exit. The streets are evacuated, leaving Elena, Nacho, Israel, Sergio, Amparo, Andrés, Trini, and Sátur trapped in the bar. Clandestine agents arrive outside and start a tire fire in the street, masking the area in thick smoke; this, along with news coverage not covering the gunshots, makes the group realize that an orchestrated coverup is going on. As they argue, the stranger exits the bathroom, grotesquely diseased; before succumbing, he warns the others not to touch him. Andrés, supported by Amparo and Sergio, realizes that the street is under quarantine and, believing that the other five were exposed to the disease, forces them all into the cellar at gunpoint.

When Trini panics and slips on the stairs, spilling some bottles, Nacho notices the liquid does not pool on the floor: they discover a small, hidden sewer grate. Covering Israel in oil, they try to slip him through into the tunnel below only to become stuck. Upstairs, people can be heard storming the bar, gunning down Andrés, Amparo, and Sergio, before setting the building on fire. Freeing Israel, air from the sewer allows the remaining patrons to survive the smoke. Once it is safe, the group ventures upstairs into the gutted bar, finding it taped off and surrounded; Nacho secretly pockets Andrés' handgun.

Finding the dead man's phone, they discover that he had brought four vials of vaccine for the disease: not enough for the five of them. Israel impulsively injects himself, leading to a fight with Nacho, but Israel disarms him and threatens the others with the firearm. During the fight, the remaining three vials are dropped in the sewer. Stripping Elena to her underwear and oiling her up, they successfully send her down to retrieve the doses. However, suspecting that she will be singled out, Elena instead hides them deeper in the tunnel while the others widen the hole enough for them to follow.

Seeing Israel becoming unstable, Nacho fights him for the gun, shooting him twice underwater and using the gun to force Elena to take them to the injections. When Sátur slips in the water, Trini tries to drown him so she can secure a vaccine for herself; Nacho makes to kill her in retaliation, but is unable to go through with it. Out of remorse, Trini takes her own life instead to try and save the others.

Israel, alive and insane, ambushes them with a metal pipe, killing Sátur and pursuing Nacho and Elena to an exit ladder. As the men grapple on the ladder, Elena accidentally drops her dose trying to help Nacho; instead, he gives his to her, tells her to escape, and lets go, dropping him and Israel to their deaths. A traumatized Elena injects herself and emerges from a manhole just down the street from the burnt-down bar and outside the quarantine. Accepting a coat from a stranger, she shuffles away from the scene and disappears into the crowd.

The film was produced by Pokeepsie Films and Nadie es Perfecto along with Pampa Films, and it had the collaboration of Atresmedia Cine and Movistar+.^[5]

The premise of the film was inspired by life experiences of Álex de la Iglesia and Jorge Guerricaechevarría in the bar 'El Palentino', although the film was not shot there, but in a refitted grocery store at Plaza de los Mostenses [es], also in Malasaña.^[4]

The Bar was presented at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival on 15 February 2017.^[6] It opened the 20th Málaga Film Festival on 17 March 2017.^[7] Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing España,^[8] it was released theatrically in Spain on 24 March 2017.^[9] It made it to the slate of the BAFICI,^[10] and, distributed by Buena Vista,^[11] it was released theatrically in Argentina on 8 June 2017.

Owen Gleiberman of Variety declared the film "easily the worst movie I've seen at this year's Berlin International Film Festival", determining the "aggressively garish aesthetic of more-more-more [intensity]" to be "just ineptitude moving too fast for you to notice it".^[12]

Jonathan Holland of The Hollywood Reporter lamented that the film is "let down by a lazy script which, after the first half an hour or so, finds it as hard to escape from its self-imposed labyrinth as its characters do".^[13]

Marta Medina of El Confidencial welcomed an Álex de la Iglesia film "thrilling from start to finish" at last after so many pictures in his filmography with stretched out endings begging for euthanasia, with Iglesia proving in the film to be "the king of pathetic horror".^[14]

Mirito Torreiro of Fotogramas rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, deeming it to be De la Iglesia's best since The Last Circus selecting "the (overwhelming) pace of the entire peripeteia" as the best thing about the film.^[15]

Carlos Boyero of El País found the film's initial charm to be "short-lived", and the ending "unbearable".^[16]

• List of Spanish films of 2017
• List of Argentine films of 2017