Juanjo is a rather shy boy who has a peculiar but loving family; and also asthma. He manages to escape from his anxiously caring environment, which can paradoxically become suffocating for him, thanks to his love of music—wild heavy metal.


But the new school year means a major life change for Junejo—since he has to repeat classes, he finds himself face to face with the dashing Miquel, who comes from a completely different background. His neighbourhood doesn't have the best reputation, he lives with a single mother and two siblings who are often at his throat, his father having abandoned them. He too, however, has a fondness for music, and a strong friendship is born between the two (even though Miquel's musical tastes are initially far from Juanjo's). Together, we dive into an unexpectedly tender story about a fragile period of growing up in Barcelona in 1991, when Juanjo and Miquel are just discovering their place in life, and their friendship across social strata will be a crucial support in their struggles.


The film is notable for its very minimalist artwork, which often lacks even close-ups of the characters' faces. Rather, we often read the emotions they experience only through the situations or their voiceover and dialogue. Like the comic strips that provided the basis for this charming film, Tender Metalheads forces us to participate in the fates of all the characters with all the more empathy.


Juanjo Sáez (Barcelona, 1972) is an illustrator and comic book artist. He made his first forays from the neighbourhood of La Sagrera into the centre of the action and of Barcelona with fanzines such as Círculo primigenio, and since then Sáez has taken his provocative cartoons to all the country’s major newspapers (and taken a beating for it). All his stories bear the mark of experience, such as the republished El Arte. Conversaciones imaginarias con mi madre (“Imaginary conversations with my mother”, Mondadori, 2006), Yo. Otro libro egocéntrico (“Me. Yet another egocentric book”, Mondadori, 2010) and his first TV animation series, Arròs covat (“Past Rice”), which won the Ondas 2010 Prize.


Heavies Tendres, 1 h 20 m, Czech subtitles