The Contestant (Spanish: Concursante) is a 2007 Spanish black comedy film directed by Rodrigo Cortés in his directorial debut feature. It stars Leonardo Sbaraglia.
Plot
The plot follows a lecturer on economic history (Martín Circo Martín) who wins the biggest prize ever (a set of prizes valued in €3 million) in a television game show in Spain, only to find out that the tax authorities want to keep a large part of the prize and he has no way to pay off his debts.[1][2]
The film was produced by Lazonafilms, Continental, Nephilim Producciones, and Filmax and it had the participation of TVE and TVG.[4] Shooting locations included A Coruña.[2]
Release
The film screened at the 10th Málaga Film Festival on 11 March 2007.[5] Distributed by Filmax,[4] it was released theatrically in Spain on 16 March 2007.[6]
Reception
Jonathan Holland of Variety considered that Cortés "fails to take the premise anywhere interesting, but the pic has a madcap, contempo energy that could find it offshore fans".[4]
Pere Vall of Fotogramas rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, highlighting an electric performance by Sbaraglia as the best thing about the film.[6]
