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Code Name: Emperor

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Code Name: Emperor
Theatrical release poster
SpanishCódigo Emperador
Directed byJorge Coira
Written byJorge Guerricaechevarría
Starring
CinematographyPablo Rosso
Edited bySandra Sánchez
Music by
  • Xavi Font
  • Elba Fernández
Production
companies
  • Vaca Films
  • Proyecto Emperador AIE
  • Playtime
Distributed byA Contracorriente Films
Release date
  • 18 March 2022 (2022-03-18) (Spain)
Countries
  • Spain
  • France
LanguageSpanish

Code Name: Emperor[1] (Spanish: Código Emperador; also known under the working title Proyecto Emperador) is a 2022 political thriller and spy film directed by Jorge Coira and written by Jorge Guerricaechevarría. The cast, led by Luis Tosar, also features Alexandra Masangkay, Georgina Amorós, Denis Gómez, Miguel Rellán and Arón Piper, among others.

It is about an intelligence agency operative who faces ethical challenges when he is told to lure a newly elected congressman into a honey trap with an underage teenage girl.[2]

Plot

Juan is a middle-aged Spanish intelligence agency operative who leads a small team that includes a male hacker and a female operative with a range of skills. He juggles tracking a wealthy couple who are involved in meetings with a neo-Nazi leader and a weapons trafficker and surveillance of a young congressman.

To gain access to the weapons trafficking couple's mansion, Juan and his team stage a kidnapping of the couple's live-in Filipino maid, Wendy, and they make it seem as if Juan is another kidnapping victim. The team throw the pair out of the vehicle at a stop. This set-up gives Juan the opportunity to meet Wendy. He romances her, which gives him access to the mansion so he can install hidden cameras.

As the surveillance of the weapons traffickers continues, Juan continues to meet with Wendy to gain access to the house. His team discovers evidence that the couple are planning to bring black market Cobalt-60 into Spain, which may be part of a dirty bomb plot.

Even though Juan is using his sexual relationship with Wendy as part of the surveillance operation, he starts to become emotionally attached to her. She tells him of her dream of saving enough from her work as a maid to return to the Philippines and open a bed and breakfast hotel with her sisters.

Juan's boss, a career-driven, politically-connected officer named Galan, assigns Juan to look into the life of newly-elected congressman Ángel González for illegal or unethical conduct. When Juan's team does hacking and video surveillance and it does not reveal any improprieties, Galan instructs Juan to lure the politician into a compromising situation.

Juan pressures Marta, a teenage girl he knows from a previous case, to participate in a honey trapping set-up. She sends flirtatious messages to Angel on a dating site. She meets Angel for drinks at a fancy nightclub and then plays it coy. Juan contrives a seeming "chance encounter" with her when Angel is on a work trip. She goes back to Angel's hotel room (in which Juan has had a video camera installed). After they have sex, she goes into the bathroom and smashes her nose into the sink, and then flees into the hall.

Juan confronts Angel and tells him that he has just had sex with a minor and assaulted her. Marta feels sickened by her participation in the setup, and she smashes Juan's surveillance-cam laptop and flees. Juan finds the distraught teen at her apartment and retrieves his laptop. Despite the damage, the sex recording is intact.

Meanwhile, as the weapons trafficking case develops, Wendy discovers that Juan has been using her to get access to the house and she is upset at his deception. After Juan and his team track the Cobalt-60 shipment and arrest the smugglers, police arrest the weapons trafficking couple, but Wendy was out of the house. He asks her to stay at his apartment until she can resettle. Reluctantly, she agrees.

When police arrest Wendy and threaten to deport her, Juan provides information to Galan, who explains that the intelligence service tries to ensure that they have compromising information on all politicians, to help the government to control leaders. Galan promises that Wendy will be released. Juan gets her travel documents and a ticket to the Philippines so she can flee. He gives a hard disk of his surveillance operations to a reporter and tells her to blow the whistle on the intelligence agency's unethical and illegal practices. He then abandons his old life to join Wendy in the Philippines.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Vaca Films [es] and Proyecto Emperador AIE alongside Playtime, with participation from RTVE, Netflix and TVG and support from ICAA, AGADIC [gl] and MEDIA.[2]

In April 2021, Vaca Films reported the beginning of filming in Madrid.[7][8] Other shooting locations included Bilbao, A Coruña, Budapest and Panama City.[2]

Release

The film was presented on 18 March 2022, opening the 25th Málaga Film Festival.[9] Domestically distributed by A Contracorriente Films, it was theatrically released in Spain on the same day.[10] Netflix acquired the distribution rights elsewhere.[11]

Reception

Jonathan Holland of ScreenDaily described the film as a "a high-speed, intense, and slickly packaged ride through the dark and nasty tunnels of state power".[4]

Accolades

Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2023 21st Mestre Mateo Awards Best Film Nominated [12][13]
Best Director Jorge Coira Nominated
Best Actor Luis Tosar Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Denís Gómez Nominated
Best Production Supervision María Liaño Nominated
Best Original Score Xavi Font, Elba Fernández Nominated
Best Makeup and Hairstyles Susana Veira, Beatriz Antelo Nominated
Best Sound Carlos Mouriño, Diego Staub, Yasmina Praderas Nominated

See also

References

  1. ^ Serba, John (29 August 2022). "Stream It Or Skip It: 'Code Name: Emperor' on Netflix, a Tangled Spanish Political Thriller Starring Luis Tosar as an Amoral Protagonist". Decider.com.
  2. ^ a b c "Tráiler de 'Código Emperador', nueva película de Jorge Coira". Audiovisual451. 19 November 2021.
  3. ^ "'Código Emperador': el Festival de Málaga arranca metiendo a Luis Tosar en las cloacas del Estado". Cinemanía. 18 March 2022 – via 20minutos.es.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Holland, Jonathan (21 March 2022). "'Code Emperor': Malaga Review". ScreenDaily.
  5. ^ "Tráiler Así es 'Código emperador': Luis Tosar en un thriller de espionaje y corrupción política". rtve. 17 November 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Código emperador, El mundo es vuestro y Aquí y ahora: vida". Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España. 18 March 2022.
  7. ^ "Arranca el rodaje de "Proyecto Emperador" con Luis Tosar". eldiario.es.
  8. ^ "Arranca el rodaje de 'Proyecto Emperador', dirigida por Jorge Coira y protagonizada por Luis Tosar". El Progreso. 22 April 2021.
  9. ^ "La película 'Código emperador', protagonizada por Luis Tosar, inaugurará el 25 Festival de Málaga Cine Español". Diario Sur. 1 February 2022.
  10. ^ "'Código emperador', dirigida por Jorge Coira y protagonizada por Luis Tosar, inaugurará el 25 Festival de Cine de Málaga". Europa Press. 1 February 2022.
  11. ^ Boquerini (10 May 2021). "El rostro más oculto del poder". El Correo.
  12. ^ Quintás, Paula (7 February 2023). "Audiovisual de Galicia: Estos son todos los finalistas a los XXI Premios Mestre Mateo". Quincemil – via El Español.
  13. ^ ""O corpo aberto" arrasa en los Premios Mestre Mateo con doce estatuíllas". La Región. 12 March 2023.
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