Fantastic Fest 2025: Luger Cast and Crew on Madrid Grit and Spanish Action Cinema

Director Bruno Martín and actor Mario Mayo discuss Luger and the future of Spanish action at Fantastic Fest 2025.

Special thanks to Santiago for on-site translation.

At Fantastic Fest 2025, we caught up with director Bruno Martín and key members of the Luger team, including longtime collaborator Mario Mayo. The film—screening here at the fest—channels the muscle and melancholy of Madrid’s working-class barrios into a hard, human crime story.

“Luger feels like a car without brakes going downhill in winter,” Martín said, describing the movie’s momentum and fatalism. He frames it against everyday Spain—“daily menus, cigarette smoke, and bad choices”—and the fallout that follows.

Madrid roots, “kinky cinema,” and real-world grit

Asked about the film’s swagger, Martín pointed to the city he grew up in and to Spain’s kinky cinema tradition—the outlaw strand of ’70s–’80s movies about street life and outsiders. Those influences run under Luger: the posture might be tough, but the characters bleed.

Mayo—who’s worked with Martín since they were teenagers making shorts—plays one of the film’s neighborhood survivors. “You’ll see guys who look hard,” he said, “but they feel everything.” Producer-translator Santiago added that the film’s bones are “very American in structure, very Spanish in atmosphere.”

Fighting for a Spanish action lane

Spain’s industry still leans heavily on publicly funded social drama. Genre budgets are scarce. Martín didn’t wait for permission: “No one was going to hand me this. I co-produced to keep it alive.” The plan is simple—make this one, then the next, and keep momentum until there’s a sustainable track for action and crime films at home.

Why Fantastic Fest

For the team, Austin isn’t just a tour stop. “Fantastic Fest is a door for genre films,” Mayo said. Martín held the finished movie for months to premiere here: first feature, first time at the fest—“the kind of moment you can’t repeat.”

As for what they want audiences to take away? Expect a straight shot of 80s-style propulsion fused to Madrid’s industrial edges, with characters who surprise you when the mask slips. Or as Santiago put it: “Ninety-plus minutes where you forget your phone and live with these people.”

Luger screens at Fantastic Fest this week. Our review will follow the premiere.