Nico and Dani

A film by Cesc Gay

In the tradition of Beautiful Thing and Wild Reeds, Nico and Dani is a portrait of adolescent experience set against the blazing sun and azure sea of a small seaside town near Barcelona. Dani and Nico are left on their own at Dani's beach house for a few days; late-night dates and in-house parties promise to be the order of the day. During those ten days of freedom, the two best friends discover love, sex, jealousy and disenchantment and thus cross that vague border separating adolescence from manhood. Nico and Dani explores the sexual and emotional confusion of two boys who have always shared everything and are now about to be pulled apart because of their diverging sexual identities. Nico and Dani successfully captures that moment between the stifling safety of childhood and the invigorating terror of adulthood. Deftly directed by Cesc Gay, Nico and Dani is arguably the finest and the most honest coming-of-age drama in recent memory.

Born in Barcelona in 1967, Cesc Gay first attracted international attention with his 1987 Super 8mm short Masked Ball, which won an award at the Zagreb International Film Festival. He directed the multimedia production Aldous, which won the 1992 Barcelona Art Biennial Award. Gay moved into television, writing and directing the 1994 documentary Krakers. His first feature film, the 1998 Hotel Room (co-directed with Argentine filmmaker Daniel Gimelberg), received the Jury Award at the Cádiz Atlantic Film Festival and was selected for the Zabaltegui section of the San Sebastián Film Festival. He continued his award-wining streak with his second feature, Krámpack (retitled Nico and Dani for U.S. release), which won a Special Award during Critics Week at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.

Based on the play Krámpack by Jordi Sánchez

2000, Spain, 90 min. English and Spanish. $28.95.

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Last modified July 15, 2003 .
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