“LA ROJA”, the film based on the story of the Spanish National Cricket Team.
Marcel Barrena, Spanish film director of works like Mediterráneo, 100 metros, or El 47, the latter with which he won five Goya Awards (like the Oscars in Hollywood) at the Goya Awards Gala held in Granada last year, is making a film called La Roja based on the recent story of the Spanish National Cricket Team.
Marcel Barrena is a famous film director known for making fiction films based on real facts in order to transmit profound and reflective messages to cinema spectators. Pope Francis, for example, suggested to the world that they watch his film Mediterráneo, based on the NGO Open Arms’ mission of helping immigrants from drowning in the sea when trying to reach other countries in search of a better life. His film 100 metros tells the true story of a man diagnosed with a condition who defies medical predictions and sets an extraordinary personal challenge. With the support of his family, he trains relentlessly against all odds. El 47 is set in Barcelona during the 1970s and portrays collective struggle, dignity, and solidarity in a time of social change, highlighting how ordinary people can challenge injustice through courage and unity.
The film La Roja is an uplifting dramedy inspired by true events about the Spanish National Cricket Team. The film follows their journey as they balance gruelling work and social challenges while playing the sport they love and striving to qualify for major international competitions, in this case the European Cricket Championship (ECC). Cricket is used as a lens to explore identity, belonging, and integration in modern Spain. Through humour and heart, the story highlights how diverse players unite under the national colours, challenging stereotypes and celebrating multiculturalism. The story of the Spanish National Cricket Team could perfectly be the story of other European cricket nations whose players’ countries of origin are sometimes different from the countries they represent on the field.
The film will be entirely shot in Spain, specifically between Badalona and Barcelona, from the 16th of February until the 31st of March 2026, and it will be shown in Spanish cinemas on the 19th of March 2027. La Roja will cast famous Spanish actors like Paco León, Carolina Yuste, and Óscar de la Fuente, among others. Some characters from the Spanish world of cricket will also appear in the film as extras.
Cricket España is obviously collaborating on this film, with some members of the staff attending daily requests and answering all the questions that the film production team is asking about the Spanish National Cricket Team and the sport of cricket in general, an environment that is completely unfamiliar to them. Alastair Priddle, assistant to our coach Corey Rutgers, is doing a commendable job training the actors before filming starts, a highly responsible task bearing in mind that the majority of them have never played cricket before and the very short time at his disposal. Our thanks go to him, to our captain Christian Muñoz, to the players who will participate in the film and to those who will not be able to due to work commitments, and also to Imran Malik, president of Pak I Care Cricket Club, for his important support as a very good connoisseur of the local Asian community.
Our deepest gratitude for their collaboration on this film goes to Daniel Weston, Roger Feiner, and their European Cricket Network staff, to Anshuman Shinde, director of Grizzly Bear Sports, to Dieter Voigt, CEO of Deutscher Cricket Bund, to Vedran Zanko, secretary of the Croatian Cricket Federation, to Richard Logan, manager of England XI’s Cricket Team, to Saravana Durairaj, general director of France Cricket, and to Lorena Paz and Luca Bruno, president and general secretary respectively of the Federazione Cricket Italiana.
By Cricket España.
