A change of register and scenery in the traditional Estrella Damm summer advertisement, which premieres this Monday, June 27. The spot, which has already become a true symbol of the start of the holiday period, this year opts for telling a story of marked intimate character and personal reunion and for replacing the idyllic landscapes of the beaches of the Costa Brava or the Balearic Islands with mountain scenes. The sea, however, is not absent, but is reserved for the final seconds of the short film, with bucolic images shot in Cap de Creus. This time, the party scenes are also very contained, as they are reduced to only five seconds towards the end of the piece. Once again, music is the great protagonist of the advertisement, with a new hit song composed by Rigoberta Bandini and masterfully performed by the singer of Love of Lesbian, Santi Balmes, and by Clara Viñals, of Renaldo & Clara.
Under the name of Aquí, ahora y así (Here, now and like this), the spot tells the story of Eric, a young baker played by Parisian actor Phénix Brossard who decides to embark on a journey of self-discovery on his bicycle. Almost in shadows, as the first piano chords begin to play, we see him in his workshop, packing his suitcase and sending an audio from his mobile phone: "I need you to listen to me. I need a vacation. I don't need to go very far from here. What I need is to go very far from you." Already on his bicycle, we see the protagonist leave the city at dawn and images of effort and tiredness begin to follow one another, in recognizable landscapes such as the Congost de Mont-rebei, the Vall d'en Bas and the Empordà (in the municipality of Navata). "I don't need your pessimism, nor your doubts, nor your fears," the message continues, as a voice-over, in a surprising scene in which Eric encounters a bear in the forest where he had camped.
Original idea by Oriol Villar and directed by Nacho Gayán, the Estrella Damm short film continues with scenes that try to convey a spirit of survival and personal improvement. We see Eric pedaling under intense rain, carrying his bicycle on his back, traveling at night with a headlamp, or fishing with a line in the river. "These have been very hard years and now I need your good side," continues the protagonist, who is seen smiling for the first time when he meets a couple of friends traveling in a motorhome on the road and with whom he shares some beers while we watch the sun set behind the mountains. "Now I need to be with the people I love," he says just before the viewer encounters another of the spot's highlighted scenes: Eric waking up in bed between his two friends and showing an expression of certain confusion.
"Help me believe in myself. Now I need to eat and drink good things, that make me happy," the voice-over continues, as we see the young interpreter having another beer, this time alone and admiring the landscape. The journey continues, now hitchhiking, and, as we head towards the end of the story, we see the protagonist's catharsis, as he confronts his fears, and we see him scream, cry, run naked through the forest while he tells us that he needs "a change." "And stop telling me that better times will come," he points out, already entering the second minute of the short, which gives way to the final climax with the recognizable voice of Santi Balmes intoning an "here, now and like this" as we see Eric at a fun party, dancing with a group of young people until dawn. "The time we have had to live is my life and, now, I know how I want to live it," concludes the audio, which the young baker sends to himself, while we see him already relaxed, bathing and sunbathing on Punta del Claper beach, in Portbou (Girona).
The soundtrack promises to be catchy again: "Here, now and like this... [...] let's party, until dawn," repeats the song composed by Bandini, who already performed last summer's hit song, the successful A ver qué pasa. The singer of Love of Lesbian also repeats the experience, he already lent his voice to the song Otra manera de Vivir, in 2019.
Phénix Brossard, born 30 years ago in Paris, debuted in the world of cinema in 2011 with La Lisière and has worked in films such as Little Joe, Monsieur Chocolat, Departure, Benjamin and The Van, and participated in a dozen television series.
https://youtu.be/F9Enw2qPlf0