There are those who date the beginning of the heyday woke —that is, the sensitivity for the rights of historically oppressed minorities— in 2014. Exactly the year in which it ended, with Operation Eurovegasthe cycle of five films by Torrente, a character who represents the most delirious and extreme version of what antiwoke: corrupt ex-policeman, sexist, homophobic, racist, nostalgic for Franco’s regime… Seen from today, those films seem even more grotesque, perhaps because society has softened its communicative modes during this time. Torrente returns now, when woke loses momentum, after receiving frontal rejection from the right and even from sectors of the left itself, and with the rumor of the reactionary wave sweeping the world. Chance? Probably yes… or the result of the cultural subtexts that float in the environment. Donald Trump, decidedly, has a lot of Torrente.
Precisely the new installment, always directed and performed by Santiago Segura, is titled Torrent president. Meanwhile, the filmmaker has dedicated himself with enormous success to family films, which are infinitely less controversial, and in 2018 he released a comedy, Without detourswith Maribel Verdú as an empowered woman, which many interpreted as a kind of feminist redemption. Not much is known about Torrente’s new film, which premieres on March 13, because its creators have decided not to promote or reveal too much of the plot before the premiere; What has emerged are some images from the filming where the disastrous character is seen giving a rally with a flag of the fictitious NOX party, whose name, logo and color is very reminiscent of the ultra, and real, party, VOX. Many have seen it clearly: if Torrente belongs to a party, it has to belong to VOX. On the other hand, there are also those who prefer to associate the character with the scandal surrounding the socialists Koldo, Cerdán and Ábalos, with whom the character shares certain attitudes, similarities that served as inspiration for some memes. What really happens in the film, we still can’t know.
Is Spanish society more prepared to understand Torrente’s character? “It seems to me that the understanding of a character or a proposal depends more on the individual than on society,” Segura himself tells this newspaper. “There are individuals who already in 1998 saw Torrente as a criticism of certain stereotypes and attitudes, and other people who, mistakenly, took it as an apology. This March 13, when it premieres Torrent president“The same thing will happen again.”
Indeed, since its origins, the controversial character of José Luis Torrente has been open to different interpretations: those who have considered it a fair satire of a despicable being; those who have known how to see satire and, even so, have not found it appropriate (because obscene); and even those who, unaware of the ironic twist, have seen him as an endearing character. It is a common reaction pattern to the parody genre. “Torrente is a friendly antihero who symbolizes in caricature form what many honest and hard-working Spaniards think,” said Antonio Martínez Nieto, Vox deputy in Murcia, in February 2025, demonstrating that, despite his sought-after extremism, and no matter how much the ink is charged, the character can also be seen in certain sectors with indulgence. The creators of the film ironize several of these positions with one of the slogans of this return: “Whitewashing fascism since 1998.”
The cockiness, arrogance and arrogance of certain leaders can be comical seen through the cinematographic prism, but very dramatic in real life.
Santiago Segura
It is striking because, although Torrente has everything to be completely rejected by the left, many of his defects transcend the political and can cause transversal rejection: it is not just that he is sexist, classist or homophobic, it is that he is dirty, a liar, a coward, a traitor. He’s not just an outdated far-rightist, he’s a bad person. In his film credit, Torrente has scams and scams, a penchant for prostitution, racist insults and physical humiliation, a notorious masturbatory desire, irresponsible use of weapons and even the rape of a heroin addict while she is unconscious, all wrapped in a risky layer of black humor. There is no where to take it.
Even so, a recent (and strange) survey by the company GAD3 places Torrente as “the most valued leader among young people”; The survey was carried out at the request of Butragueño & Bottländer, the creative agency in charge of promoting the film. 28% of those surveyed between 18 and 29 years old would choose Torrente as President of the Government before any other candidate (he surpasses, in this order, Pedro Sánchez, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Yolanda Díaz and Santiago Abascal). The percentage falls to 22% in the 30 to 44 age group, to 20% between 45 and 64 years of age and to 11% for those over 65. The results, the result of 2,351 interviews, are in line with the notable growth of the far-right among young men, although, curiously, most of Torrente’s support comes from people who consider themselves center (28%). The most valued attributes in the character were friendliness (37%), authenticity (25%), sincerity (21%) and honesty (18%). According to the pollsters, the choice of these values can be related to social concern about corruption, although it is difficult to understand what makes Torrente alien to corruption and not quite the opposite. Surely Torrente’s choice can be attributed to a feeling of disaffection with politics.
Against the official discourse
Torrente’s ambiguity has proven to be very uncomfortable, that fine line between laughing with him and laughing at him, especially in times so little given to nuance, but, perhaps because of that, because of that guilty feeling, it has devastated the box office. “Sometimes there is a curious phenomenon that we have seen lately in the new right: when certain sectors assume what would be a satire as their own,” says researcher Franco Delle Donne, author of the essay and podcast Ultra epidemic (Peninsula). This new ultra right is also characterized by contradicting the official discourse wherever it is necessary, mainstream: If we seek to achieve a consensus that Torrente is not cool, then Torrente becomes for some of a rebellious nature a value to be vindicated: it is the one that, against the dictatorship of political correctness, says what no one dares to say. “Thus, a character that should show us certain despicable facets ends up humanizing and becoming the opposite of what the initial message was,” adds the expert.
Features of canyoning in certain current leaders, as in the cruel folksiness of Trump, a man of such confidence and self-confidence, so proud of his vulgarity, that, while he turns the world upside down, he can even be comical. “These types of representatives of the people who fill their speeches with populism, who lie flagrantly and gloss over their promises, are the basis and inspiration of this new Torrente,” says Santiago Segura, “the cockiness, arrogance and arrogance of certain leaders can be comical seen through the cinematographic prism, but very dramatic in real life. And, furthermore, unfortunately, it is not necessary to go to the United States to find people like that.”
In the figure of the sordid ex-policeman there is a radicalization of some archetypes of Spanish tradition, such as the rogue of the Lazarillo or Quevedo, the absurdity of Valle-Inclán, even the caricature of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Of course, the most contemporary brother in law. But everything in a wild way. Its connection with the landism (the cultural phenomenon related to the films starring Alfredo Landa during the late Franco era: ordinary gentlemen, ordinary Spaniards, trying to flirt with mythological Swedes). “Suddenly expressions of masculinity emerged that were contrary to the previous hegemonic masculinity, more virile, austere, contained, like that associated with fascism,” says sociologist Zira Box, author of The virile nation. Gender, fascism and national regeneration in Franco’s victory (Editorial Alliance). The expert does not believe that they were a model of virility, but rather another way of relating to one’s own identity when it loses rigidity. “Cultural products, such as literature and cinema, allow these clownish and histrionic stereotypes: it is a way of laughing at certain elements of our national narrative, instead of lamenting them,” adds Box.
There are those who point out that the canyoning It wouldn’t even have to be restricted to Spanish. “Probably if we held an Olympics of canyoning y in-lawism we would win,” says cartoonist Pedro Vera, a keen analyst of rancidity in comics like Ortega and Pacheco o Ranciofacts“but we were still surprised seeing the foreign tourists who come to places like Salou or any coastal area.” Vera observes that we had imagined the future as a sophisticated place full of aseptic, restrained and cultured people, definitely cool… but what a disappointment: “It seems that we have reached the middle of the ham and we have turned it around: now we are going back. We imagined living in a Moebius comic and we are returning to Uncle Vázquez.”
We live in times of an abolished future, of unhealthy nostalgia, of great regression, even of distrust in humanity. And perhaps that is why Torrente’s return has special meaning, because he embodies, amidst grime and sweat, the opposite of humanism. “It is a compendium of everything reprehensible, the most vile and miserable in our society. And unfortunately it is equally or more valid than when it was created,” concludes its creator, Santiago Segura.