Illo, ¿tienes un pitillo?
2004 · 13m · España
Directed by Salvador Blanco
Tones: darkly comic, provocative
A satire about those who demand a smoke-free world and those who defend being able to smoke a cigarette in peace, in times when being a smoker is almost a sin.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A 2004 Spanish short that treats the smoking debate as genuine philosophical turf war instead of public health hygiene theater—genuinely subversive premise dressed as casual satire, the kind of thing that makes you uncomfortable precisely because both sides are ridiculous and right.
Blanco's satire sits comfortably within the European political comedy tradition, though the execution feels more sketch than formally considered—the premise is sharper than the filmmaking, and there's a thinness to the craft that keeps it from the kind of rigor that lingers.
The film's most effective choice is its refusal to let either side off easy; the framing stays neutral and absurdist rather than collapsing into caricature, which is harder than it sounds in a 13-minute format and speaks to real restraint in the edit.