From chicken thief to folk legend — Spain's most wanted became its most beloved.
Season 1 • Episode 5
LatestEleuterio takes a new wife. His new home, the sewers. But his life is not entirely happy, his sister and her sister-in-law are arrested as they have to separate to facilitate their escape.
Eleuterio Sánchez, alias "El Lute", a merchandise trader by birth and a chicken thief at the beginning of his career, is the reason for his first arrest.
Acting
Imanol Arias transforms from petty thief to tragic icon.
Direction
Aranda weaponizes melodrama against fascist nostalgia.
Production
Recreated 60s Spain feels lived-in, not museum-piece.
Creator
Vicente Aranda
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
El Lute became a folk hero during Franco's final years; his face on t-shirts symbolized resistance to rural poverty's criminalization.
Aranda shot this immediately after 'El Lute: Run for Your Life' (1987), treating TV with the same visual ambition as his cinema.
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