Jokes & Cigarettes

Directed and written by award-winner David Trueba (LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED SPA14) and starring David Verdaguer (SUMMER 1993 SPA18) in a transformative performance, Jokes & Cigarettes follows the early days of the famous Catalan humourist Eugenio, a chain-smoking comedian known for his deadpan delivery, smoked glasses and trademark total black attire. Barcelona, the mid 1960s. Young jeweler Eugenio meets Conchita on a bus, and it is love at first sight. He learns to play guitar to accompany her in her musical career, and despite stage fright, they start to play together as ‘Els dos’. When Conchita leaves Barcelona for two weeks, she convinces Eugenio to perform solo and he becomes a phenomenon in the city’s underground stand-up comedy scene. With her help, he creates his alter ego—the dark glasses, the black shirt, the barstool, the cigarettes and the highball glass—the character that would soon become an unexpected success in a depressed nation desperate to laugh.