Sabotage! (film, 2000)

Events unfold in 1815 . To raise morale on the eve of the great battle, a patriotic performance takes place in the French camp, which ends with the performance of the Emperor Napoleon . Attempt is being prepared on him, but Corporal Armani kills the conspirator with a random shot. The grateful Napoleon produces him in the field marshals.

The next day, the English spy of Lady Edwin penetrates the camp of the French. She is mistakenly mistaken for a Belgian spy who returned from a mission from an enemy camp. Napoleon and Edwin fall in love at first sight, but duty is a duty - at the first opportunity, Edwin, having stolen the General Plan of the battle, escapes to the commander in chief of the English, Lord Wellington . Learning about this, Napoleon goes after her, dressed as a gypsy and leaving the commander for the time of his absence Armani. But Armani suffers from delusions of grandeur - at times he imagines himself Bonaparte. And now, having gained power, he puts on a cloak and a cocked hat and leads troops on the attack (as the authors of the film explain the tactical mistakes of the French command).

As a result of the battle, the French army was defeated, and two Napoleons were captured at once by the British - the real one, who was wounded in the head while trying to escape, and now considers himself a simple farmer, and Armani, confident that Bonaparte is he. The trial of both is ruled by the King of England, George III himself , and he decides that Armani should be recognized as a usurper and exiled to the island of St. Helena , and the real Bonaparte released.

In the late 80s, Javier Ibarretxe (1961-2014) and his brothers founded the film company Ibarretxe & Co. Esteban Ibarretxe and José Miguel Ibarretxe wrote the scripts and were responsible for directing, Javier was the film producer , and Santiago Ibarretxe wrote the music ^{[2] [3] [4]} .

Mostly short films were shot, one of them, “7:35 de la mañana” (“7:35 in the morning”), was nominated for an Oscar in 2005. Among other famous works are “Malditas sean las suegras” (1994), “Sólo se muere dos veces” (“You only die twice”, 1997), “Vaya semanita” (television series 2003), “Un mundo casi perfecto” (2011) ^[5] .

The film was shot in the homeland of the Ibarext brothers, in the Basque country , an autonomous region in northern Spain , from the second of August to the fifth of October 1999 ^[6] .

The film was presented at the Sitges Film Festival (October 14, 2000) and at the French-Spanish Film Festival in Miami (July 19, 2001). I have not received any awards.

The film was not a success with the audience - in Spain it was watched by 50 825 people, box office amounted to 205 940 euros (on August 10, 2002). ^[7] The IMDb rating was 4.6 out of 10.

• Sabotage! (English) on the Internet Movie Database