El autócrata
2023 · 59m · España
Directed by Carlos Hernando
Genres: documentary
Tones: dark, provocative
In this documentary, historic PSOE leaders, including former ministers, attack Pedro Sánchez's political legacy, accusing him of caudillo-style leadership, lies and unconstitutional actions during his years in power.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A Spanish political documentary that turns the knife inward — former party elders publicly eviscerating their own leader's autocratic turn is exactly the kind of self-sabotaging, consensus-destroying premise that makes you ask 'wait, they're really doing this?' and then can't look away.
The film sits within a rigorous documentary tradition of political testimony and institutional critique, though its reliance on talking heads and accusations without formal counterstructure risks descending into polemic rather than achieving the measured rigor that elevates such work into lasting discourse.
The singular choice here is the decision to let PSOE insiders dismantle their own house on camera — that internal fracture becomes the film's backbone, and the restraint to let their words do the demolition work, rather than overlay narration or montage, is what transforms a scandal into something structurally compelling.