Saturn Return

How does musical essence take form when a band, unraveling and reaching, creates the record that will define an era? In Saturn Return, acclaimed filmmaker Isaki Lacuesta, co-directing with Pol Rodríguez, delves into the myth and legacy of Los Planetas, widely considered pioneers of Spain’s indie rock scene. Lacuesta and Rodríguez, rather than tracing a straight line through the band’s discography, focus on a key moment in the group’s evolution: the creation of their third and most defining album, Una Semana en el Motor de un Autobús. It is a chaotic, transformative chapter marked by artistic ambition, internal fractures, and the shadows of drug addiction.

Structured in eleven chapters, each tied to a track from the record, Saturn Return unfolds as a polyphonic, dreamlike narrative bathed in red and blue neon, underground haze, and the raw emotional pulse of 1990s Granada, Spain. The film is not a reconstruction of real events or a chronicle of facts; instead, it moves within a revealing dimension where fiction, reality, and legend freely intertwine. Less a conventional band biopic than an atmospheric immersion, it distances itself from classic films like 24 Hour Party People, Control, or Leto, opting instead for a more abstract, mood-driven portrait of a band undergoing transformation.

Diego Ginartes Rodríguez