The wild feat of the Spanish water polo team in Barcelona 92

"The 1992 water polo team at the Barcelona Olympics was a milestone.

. A team that was a reflection of overcoming, commitment, love. And it seems that it generated a story that would later be told in the cinema. It had all the characteristic elements of a sports drama", says Jaime Lorente about 42 seconds.

The film, directed by Àlex Murrull and Dani de la Orden, gives an account of the Spanish water polo team: an unprepared team in

.

The story begins when the Spanish water polo federation hires a new coach, Croatian Dragan Matutinovic,

: hours of daily training without rest.

He trains athletes "like gladiators," pushing them beyond their physical and mental limits.

And it also created difficult duels.

In this case, between the team captain, Manel Estiarte (played by Álvaro Cervantes), and Pedro

García, one of the star players (played by Jaime Lorente).

Pressure,

, camaraderie, mental health, and addiction are some of the themes this film focuses on.

In the memory of those Olympic Games in Barcelona 92, this tremendous competitiveness was marked by fire.

The actor Jaime Lorente talks about this: "The beautiful thing, when you go to see what lies behind something that everyone knows, is the surprise of the unexpected. Sports is already known, now

The final of that year is twice as exciting because you have known the history of the characters. You already hug them and go with them, "he says.

For the younger audience, however, that of those already mythical players in Spanish sport is an unknown story: "It's also the good thing about the movie. There are people who didn't see those Games and don't know anything about what happened in them. It will be

for the first time," adds Pedro García.

The former water polo player confesses how excited he is to have been part of the project: "That they give that team the connotation of filming is spectacular."

In addition to the

, Matutinovic's (much criticized) methods were crucial to the great achievements that the team went on to achieve, and the film turns on it.

For Pedro García, the coach "is the character in the film," he says.

"Dragan is the one who really made that group of athletes and what we became. With his methods so beastly, yes."

And what was it like playing Pedro?

"A scrap", answers Lorente.

"For Álvaro and for me, the opinion of Pedro and Manel was the most important thing. In the end, I have worked with the utmost respect and with

, trying to honor him and his history, and to do so from a very sensitive place".

And the player, Pedro García, replies: "I was a 23-year-old boy with many internal problems. I escaped through the party and the

. And I asked Jaime [the actor who plays him] that he is not frivolous. Deep down he is a young boy who is suffering. He is not a gulf. And Jaime nails it ".

42 seconds

rescues the sacrifice of a team that had been forgotten or with a

.

The team that went from being the mockery of water polo, to being applauded throughout Spain.

Thus, the film is also a way of remembering the Barcelona Olympics, in which "the city turned upside down. They were the best Olympics of the 20th century. All the athletes said it: it

," recalls García.

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• Olympic Games Barcelona 92

• water polo olympics

• cinema