Alex de la Iglesia
Film Director

From Franco and the Spanish Secret Service to futuristic Italian robots, Spanish film director Alex de la Iglesia sees comic potential in every facet of life.

Alex de la Iglesia used to be a cartoonist. Which explains a lot. His films are packed with striking colours and blackly funny sketches which move with the jerky frenzy of a comic strip. In person he is friendly and thoughtful but still carries a definite whiff of the mad inventor in the bedroom which all cartoonists seem to possess. Endearingly scruffy in baggy black sweatpants and shirt, he is also wearing those big floppy brown-checked slippers that granddads love.

At 34, he is the new darling of Spanish cinema, taking over neatly from his mentor Pedro Almodóvar. His hit movie, Muertos de risa, starring El Gran Wyoming and Santiago Segura, raked near of 1,6 million EURO in its first week, setting an instant Spanish record. It was the black and bloody tale of comedy duo Nino and Bruno who are locked in mutual hate and dependency and set on the path towards destruction. It has the double seam of humour and nastiness that runs through all his films. And some horrifically bad '70s clothes.

He is part of an increasingly healthy Spanish film industry growing in recognition outside the country. "As far as film-making goes, Spain is one of the most open countries precisely because we were under a dictator for 40 years. We have finally lost the term españolada [a derogatory name for the lightweight romances churned out in the '50s and '60s] which we deserved at the time because we spent many years in this country boring people to tears at the pictures. Now we have a truly diverse cinema and it's fantastic."