Manual práctico del amigo imaginario (abreviado)
2008 · 20m · España
Directed by Ciro Altabás
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age, fantasy
Tones: absurdist, tender, whimsical
Despite being 27, Fernando Hinojosa still keeps his childhood imaginary friend, a superhero called 'Capitán Kilotón', but their relationship is endangered when Iratxe, a platonic school love, starts dating Fernando and moves in with him.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A 27-year-old man's imaginary superhero friend as the third wheel in a romantic triangle—it's absurd enough to work, and Altabás commits to the bit without winking, which is exactly what makes it subversive. Everyone else would've turned this into a cute indie-darling about growing up; Felix sees a film that actually trusts its weird premise.
Altabás situates this squarely in the Spanish tradition of magical-realist comedy, with formal restraint in how he balances the quotidian and the fantastical—the editing holds the tension between Fernando's interior life and domestic reality with real discipline. It's a film aware of its own tonal inheritance.
The entire film pivots on one choice: treating Capitán Kilotón not as a gag but as a genuine emotional presence in the frame, which forces every other scene to recalibrate around that commitment. That single decision—how seriously the camera regards an invisible character—is what elevates a premise into something that actually feels alive.