{ "id": "ep0qqank3b", "slug": "the-realm", "title": "The Realm", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films", "label": "2015–2019 films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films.thriller-and-mystery-films", "label": "Thriller and mystery films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films.thriller-and-mystery-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films.thriller-and-mystery-films.alpha-o-to-z", "label": "Titles O to Z", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films.thriller-and-mystery-films.alpha-o-to-z" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: 2015–2019 films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films", "label": "2015–2019 films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Realm (El reino) is a 2018 Spanish-French political thriller by Rodrigo Sorogoyen starring Antonio de la Torre as a corrupt politician scapegoated by his party; it won seven Goya Awards.", "snippet": "The Realm (El reino) is a 2018 Spanish-French political thriller by Rodrigo Sorogoyen starring Antonio de la Torre as a corrupt politician scapegoated by his party; it won seven Goya Awards.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2015-2019-films.thriller-and-mystery-films.alpha-o-to-z", "markdown": "# The Realm\n\n**The Realm** (Spanish: *El reino*) is a 2018 Spanish-French political thriller directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, written by Sorogoyen with Isabel Peña, and starring Antonio de la Torre as Manuel López-Vidal, a corrupt regional politician who becomes his party's designated scapegoat when a corruption scandal breaks.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/) The film premiered at the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) in September 2018, competed in the Official Section of the San Sebastián Festival, and went on to win seven [Goya Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-awards) from thirteen nominations.[2](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-251491/) • [3](https://sansebastianfestival.com/2018/secciones_y_peliculas/seccion_oficial/7/660223/es)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / year | *El reino* (The Realm), 2018, Spain (90%) and France (10%)[4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=47817) |\n| Director and screenplay | Rodrigo Sorogoyen; screenplay by Sorogoyen and Isabel Peña[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/) |\n| Lead performance | Antonio de la Torre as Manuel López-Vidal, a regional party leader who has enriched himself with public funds for years[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/) • [4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=47817) |\n| Runtime and rating | 131 minutes; rated not recommended for children under 12 in Spain[4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=47817) |\n| Spanish release and box office | 28 September 2018; €1,952,115.50 gross and 365,264 admissions[4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=47817) |\n| Goya Awards | 7 wins from 13 nominations: director, lead actor, supporting actor, original screenplay, original music, editing, and sound[2](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-251491/) |\n| Critical reception | 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 24 reviews[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_realm) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and characters\n\nManuel López-Vidal has a good life: a loving family, friends everywhere, and the charisma that has made him a beloved politician in his autonomous community (Spain's self-governing regional governments, like [Catalonia](https://www.edgepedia.org/catalonia)). He is also a corrupt man who has been enriching himself with public money for years.[6](https://manila.cervantes.es/imagenes/File/ICManila-Pelicula2019-catalogo.pdf) When a leaked recording threatens to expose the plot, Manuel disobeys his party's leadership and tries to cover for his friend and fellow member Paco (Nacho Fresneda). The party closes ranks, and only Paco emerges unscathed: Manuel is expelled, publicly blamed for the entire scheme, and betrayed by the colleagues who were his friends hours before.[3](https://sansebastianfestival.com/2018/secciones_y_peliculas/seccion_oficial/7/660223/es) Rather than surrender, he fights back, gathering evidence against his former allies; the Cineuropa synopsis frames the question as how far a person will go to hold on to power.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/)\n\nThe cast includes Josep Maria Pou as Frías, Bárbara Lennie as Amaia Marín, Ana Wagener as La Ceballos, Mónica López as Inés, and Luis Zahera as Cabrera, alongside Francisco Reyes II, María de Nati, and David Lorente.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/) • [7](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=47817)\n\n## Production\n\nThe film was produced by Tornasol Films, Trianera Producciones, Atresmedia Cine, and Bowfinger International Pictures, with the French companies Le Pacte and Mondex & Cie as minority coproducers, and was distributed in Spain by Warner Bros Entertainment Spain.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/) • [7](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=47817) Shooting ran from 10 July to 17 October 2017, with 28 days in Madrid, 11 in Valencia, 11 in Pamplona, and one in Andorra.[4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=47817) The technical team included cinematographer Alejandro de Pablo, editor Alberto del Campo, and composer Olivier Arson, whose score was noted by Variety's Dennis Harvey for its restrained ominousness supporting the film's thriller mechanics.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/) • [8](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film140455.html)\n\nSorogoyen and Peña researched the political backstage by speaking with politicians, journalists, and judges, and drew on news footage as source material. In a 2018 interview with RTVE, Sorogoyen said the film deliberately names no party, so that anyone who has watched a Spanish news broadcast knows what it refers to, and described the scarcity of political thrillers in Spanish cinema as a product of self-censorship rooted in the country's recent democratic history.[9](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20180922/reino-grandes-exitos-corrupcion-espana-tambalea-san-sebastian/1804480.shtml)\n\n## Themes and critical reading\n\nThe film assembles recognizable elements of Spain's corruption cases of the previous decade, including secret accounts, money in Switzerland and Andorra, and kickbacks, which the RTVE critic Esteban Ramón called a \"greatest hits\" of corruption made into a thriller.[9](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20180922/reino-grandes-exitos-corrupcion-espana-tambalea-san-sebastian/1804480.shtml) A 2022 essay by Fernando Sánchez López, a doctoral researcher in Iberian studies at The Ohio State University, published in *Filmhistoria Online*, analyzes the film as a paradigmatic text of the representation of corruption in contemporary Spain and as an example of what the author calls Spanish neo-noir: a hybrid of classic film noir and gangster-film elements set in a national context whose allusion to real events is essential. The essay argues that adopting the corrupt politician's point of view exemplifies the ambivalent link between spectators of these fictions and their sociopolitical reality, and situates the genre's emergence after Spain's 2008 economic crisis and the subsequent string of political corruption cases.[10](https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/filmhistoria/article/view/41383)\n\nReviewers emphasized the film's pacing and central performance. Cineuropa's David González called it \"a forceful and adrenaline-charged thriller\" that ramps up the suspense at a merciless pace, and [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter)'s Jonathan Holland praised Antonio de la Torre's performance in a film he described as concerned, contemporary cinema that is also entertaining to watch.[8](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film140455.html) The Guardian's Leslie Felperin found the opening a slog that grows progressively more engrossing.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_realm) Ken Eisner, reviewing for The Georgia Straight at VIFF 2019, noted that the barrage of names, faces, and places can initially baffle viewers, but credited de la Torre with a commanding turn as the party's chosen scapegoat and singled out the final quarter of the film.[11](https://www.straight.com/movies/1300651/viff-2019-realm)\n\n## Release and awards\n\nThe film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018 in the World Contemporary Cinema section, and screened in the Official Section of the 66th San Sebastián Festival (21–29 September 2018), where it was nominated for the Golden Shell.[2](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-251491/) • [3](https://sansebastianfestival.com/2018/secciones_y_peliculas/seccion_oficial/7/660223/es) • [12](https://amsterdamspanishfilmfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ASFF-2019.pdf) It was released in Spain on 28 September 2018, in France and Belgium on 17 April 2019, in the Netherlands on 4 July 2019, and in Italy on 5 September 2019.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/)\n\nAt the 2019 Goya Awards it received thirteen nominations and won seven prizes: Best Director (Sorogoyen), Best Actor (Antonio de la Torre), Best Supporting Actor (Luis Zahera), Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Music, Best Editing, and Best Sound.[2](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-251491/) It also won five Feroz Awards from ten nominations, including Best Drama Film, Director, and Actor, and took the Platino Awards for Best Actor and Editing in 2019.[8](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film140455.html) The film was a finalist for the 2019 LUX Prize, the [European Parliament](https://www.edgepedia.org/european-parliament)'s film prize, which subtitled its finalists in the EU's 24 official languages.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/) • [13](https://www.grignoux.be/dossiers/288/pdf/2019_Prix_Lux/EN.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Realm (El reino), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/357622/)\n2. [El Reino (2018), SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-251491/)\n3. [El reino / The Realm, 66th San Sebastián Festival, Official Section](https://sansebastianfestival.com/2018/secciones_y_peliculas/seccion_oficial/7/660223/es)\n4. [El Reino, ICAA Film Catalogue, Spanish Ministry of Culture](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=47817)\n5. [The Realm, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_realm)\n6. [El Reino (The Realm), Instituto Cervantes Manila film catalog (2019)](https://manila.cervantes.es/imagenes/File/ICManila-Pelicula2019-catalogo.pdf)\n7. [El Reino, ICAA film data sheet (PDF)](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=47817)\n8. [The Realm (2018), Filmaffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film140455.html)\n9. [\"El reino\", un \"grandes éxitos\" de la corrupción en España, RTVE (22 September 2018)](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20180922/reino-grandes-exitos-corrupcion-espana-tambalea-san-sebastian/1804480.shtml)\n10. [Fernando Sánchez López (2022). Spanish Political Corruption as a Neo-Noir Fantasy in El Reino (Sorogoyen, 2018). Filmhistoria Online, Vol. 32, No. 2](https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/filmhistoria/article/view/41383)\n11. [Ken Eisner, VIFF 2019: The Realm, The Georgia Straight](https://www.straight.com/movies/1300651/viff-2019-realm)\n12. [El Reino / The Realm, Amsterdam Spanish Film Festival 2019 program](https://amsterdamspanishfilmfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ASFF-2019.pdf)\n13. [LUX Film Prize dossier, European Parliament (2019)](https://www.grignoux.be/dossiers/288/pdf/2019_Prix_Lux/EN.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2015–2019 films › Thriller and mystery films › Titles O to Z*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-realm", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-realm.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Realm\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-realm. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Realm](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-realm)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-realm](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-realm). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Realm\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-realm. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Realm is a 2018 Spanish-French political thriller by Rodrigo Sorogoyen starring Antonio de la Torre as a corrupt politician scapegoated by his party; it won seven Goya Awards." }