La primera noche de mi vida is a comedy filled with contrasts and clashing ideas, in which chance seems to play a leading role. The protagonists in this world where loss and the rediscovery of true life seem to be central, are Manuel and the pregnant Paloma, two newly-weds. They go to dinner with the parents of Paloma. Manuel, who doesn’t have a car, has rented a truck, but Paloma’s father, who wants to demonstrate that his son-in-law is too common by half, insists on picking the two up in his own luxury car. And that’s how the trouble starts. The petty thief Johnny, accompanied by Litri, steals Paloma’s father’s car and his mobile phone toimpress his girlfriend, the attractive Jasmina. Paloma’s father gets stranded in an area that is hostile to him. In the meantime Manuela and Paloma break down on the motorway. What follows is a sequence of misunderstandings, lost cars, minor accidents and quarrels between cops and Guardia Civil.The film, that was made in the series 2000 vu par… (see also Last Night, Book of Life, The Hole, La vie sur terre and Midnight), is set in the last five hours of New Year’s Eve 1999 in the outer suburbs of Madrid. It is a road movie in which the motorways look like vicious circles that go nowhere, especially for three German ‘tourists’ who try in vain to reach the ‘Puerta del Sol’, the spot where the traditional mass for the new year is to be held.
