'Wolfgang,' the family comedy that could repeat the phenomenon of 'The 47' and 'House on Fire.'

BarcelonaIt's almost predictable that a film about a child piano prodigy begins with the protagonist playing like a virtuoso, but it's not that the piano he's playing is the one in a funeral home where the child is trying to process the fact that his mother has just died. Wolfgang, which premieres this Friday, is the big commercial bet of Catalan cinema in 2025, a friendly family comedy with an openly popular vocation that, however, addresses issues often taboo in this type of cinema, such as grief, mental health, and suicide. All these themes were already in the eponymous book by Laia Aguilar, which adapts the film and which "excited" the director Javier Ruiz Caldera when he read to her: "I have two daughters and I go to the movies a lot with them, and I miss movies that both they and I can enjoy, movies about characters that deal with emotions and somewhat complex themes and that then, when we leave the theater, give rise to a conversation."

A Wolfgang, a gifted boy with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (played by Jordi Catalán) moves in with a father he'd never met (Miki Esparbé) after his mother's death. Both must adapt to a new and complex situation: the boy, to living with an immature father who isn't fond of routines; the father, to dealing with the special needs of a boy who, moreover, has just lost his mother. Last Sunday, at a family preview at the Aribau cinemas, Ruiz Caldera and Esparbé were pleased to see children of various ages animatedly discussing the film with their parents, explaining how moved they were. "Children and adolescents today brush us aside on many issues," Esparbé emphasizes. "We shouldn't overprotect them, just adapt our discourse a little, but without condescension." And Ruiz Caldera adds: "From a place of love and understanding, we can talk about everything; we just have to accompany them on the path of managing their feelings."

Half-jokingly, Esparbé points out that Ruiz Caldera "has jumped into the pool of emotion" with Wolfgang. And it is true that, until now, he had only directed crazy comedies (Spanish movie, Ghost Promotion, Three Weddings Too Many), action comedies for all audiences (Anacleto, Superlópez) or fantastic adventures with an aftertaste pulp (Malnazidos, with Alberto de Toro). "It's the first film I won't be able to screen at Sitges, and I'm not taking it well," laments Ruiz Caldera with a sense of humor. "I'll have to make a new version with some ghost or zombie to see if Ángel Sala [the festival's director] accepts it."

Wolfgang It's also his first film in Catalan. "I really wanted to make it in Catalan, especially because it's the language I read the book in and imagined the film in," says Ruiz Caldera. "I hadn't filmed in Catalan because the type of films I make are large-scale productions, and until now, making them in Catalan severely limited your budget. Fortunately, that has changed private networks like Telecinco and Antena 3's reluctance to invest in Catalan-language films."

Wolfgang It is, in fact, the first film in its original Catalan version produced by Telecinco, which is currently promoting the film through the Mediaset group's channels. The film will be shown in Catalonia exclusively in Catalan, but in the rest of Spain, theaters will be able to choose whether to show it in its original version or dubbed into Spanish. "We're not crazy about dubbing, but it's a family film designed for children ages 7 or 8 and up, and it's not a question of forcing children in Murcia to read subtitles," explains Ruiz Caldera.

'Cameos' by Carlos Cuevas and Bayona

Readers of Aguilar's novel will identify several changes in the film, especially with regard to the character of the father, who on his journey to the screen has become an actor working in a soap opera in the style of As if it were yesterday while nostalgically remembering the times when he was nominated for the Gaudí and seeing how the actor of the moment, Carlos Cuevas –who makes a funny cameo playing himself–, clothes all the roles. "This was Javi's idea, and I think it's brilliant, among other things because Carlos and I are very good friends," says Esparbé. "Having Carlos and Jota Bayona appear playing themselves makes the film more relatable to the audience because it brings a sense of humor and grounds the story in reality. Also, the fact that my character is what has made me, vanity and fears." Ruiz Caldera, who has had a very good relationship with Bayona since they both studied Chess, adds with a touch of malice that the director of The Snow Society "He has improved a lot as an actor" since he directed him in 2009 Spanish movie.

But the cameos These are just anecdotes from a film that, in terms of acting, places the child Jordi Catalán on its shoulders, having passed a casting process lasting many months in which more than 700 children passed. "We saw children with ASD, children with high abilities, child pianists and child actors," recalls Ruiz Caldera. "And in the end, Jordi appeared, who didn't even know how to play the piano, but he had such a fascinating outlook and conveyed so many things that it was crystal clear." Esparbé emphasizes Catalán's "exceptionality": "He was aware of the responsibility he had on his shoulders, but that weight never worked against him. On the contrary, he always came to the shoot with absolute willingness."

Before filming, Catalán took piano lessons that didn't immediately turn him into a virtuoso, but they did allow for some scenes where the audience actually hears him playing the piano. In others, the crew used a hand double and even integrated the actor's face into the body of a child pianist. Regarding the representation of ADHD, he advised the Barcelona Asperger's Association, which read the script and made some suggestions. "The intention was always to normalize the disorder," the director emphasizes. "Wolfgang is autistic, but the film isn't about that. It's a characteristic of a child who has a lot of other things going on."

A streak that doesn't want to end

After the phenomenon of House on fire and The 47, Wolfgang is the first candidate to renew the good run of Catalan-language cinema at the box office. "We were already filming when these successes occurred, and we were very excited to see how an industry and an audience eager to see films in Catalan were beginning to take shape," says Ruiz Caldera. "Catalan institutions have been doing things right for some time now, promoting commercially oriented cinema without neglecting more authorial cinema, and now. One example is that the latest film Esparbé has shot is, precisely, another Catalan-language title with a generous budget and commercial ambition: the historical drama Border, by Judith Colell. "They are two films that couldn't be more different, but both are powerful productions with decent budgets that allow them to tell their respective stories well," explains the actor.

"The point is that great films can be made in Catalan, with ambition, and that the public goes to see them, because family films aren't released in Catalan every day," says Ruiz Caldera. In fact, the director remembers the example of a director he knows very well, Rosa Vergés, who in 1997 released one of the last films in Catalan specifically for children: Tico taco"Rosa was a very important person for me," he explains. "She was a chess teacher and she was the first to give me a 10. It took me by surprise, because I was rather low-key, I didn't stand out. But she grabbed me at the end of class and said: 'Listen, Javi, you have me for everyone.' "I'm sure you'll have a lot of reassurances, that was very important."