La habitación de Fermat (2007)

Directors:

Luis Piedrahita
Rodrigo Sopeña

Writers:

Luis Piedrahita (written by)
Rodrigo Sopeña (written by)

Release Date:

16 November 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Think inside the box

Plot:

Four mathematicians who do not know each other are invited by a mysterious host on the pretext of resolving a great enigma...

Plot Keywords:

Mathematician | Shrinking Room | Shrinking | Villain | Suspense

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Lluís Homar	...	Hilbert
Alejo Sauras	...	Galois
Elena Ballesteros	...	Oliva
Santi Millán	...	Pascal
Federico Luppi	...	Fermat
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Núria Badia	...	Recepcionist
Víctor Benjumea	...	Gas Station Attendant
Ariadna Cabrol	...	Girl
Helena Carrión	...	Library assistant
Cesc Cornet	...	Boy
Juanma Falcón	...	Boy
Alicia Fernández	...	Girl
David Fernández	...	Policeman
Josep Minguell	...	Doctor
Adam Nached	...	Boy
Mariola Ruiz	...	Nurse
San Yélamos	...	Girl

Directed by
Luis Piedrahita
Rodrigo Sopeña

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Luis Piedrahita		written by
Rodrigo Sopeña		written by

Produced by
César Benítez	....	producer
Adolfo Blanco	....	producer
José María Irisarri	....	executive producer
José María Irisarri	....	producer
Manuel Monzón Fueyo	....	co-executive producer
Manuel Monzón	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Federico Jusid

Cinematography by
Miguel Ángel Amoedo

Film Editing by
Jorge Macaya

Casting by
Laura Cepeda

Art Direction by
David Fernández

Costume Design by
Santos Sánchez

Makeup Department
Eva Fontenla	....	makeup artist
Paula Sánchez	....	assistant makeup artist

Production Management
Teresa Enrich	....	production manager
Mariano Liwski	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Anna Aran	....	second assistant director
Carles Valero	....	first assistant director
Àlex Vilà	....	first assistant director: second unit

Sound Department
David Calleja	....	sound re-recording mixer
Licio Marcos de Oliveira	....	sound
Filippo Restelli	....	boom operator
Oriol Tarragó	....	sound designer
Giannie Tognarelli	....	boom operator
Edgar Vidal	....	foley designer
Kiku Vidal	....	foley artist

Visual Effects by
Gloria Bernabeu	....	digital compositor

Stunts
Antonio Higueruelo	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Tadzio Salgado	....	first assistant camera

Editorial Department
José Pedraza	....	digital intermediate colorist

Music Department
Juan Pablo Gonzalez Saccone	....	music mixer (as PJ Saccone)

Other crew
Anna Vilà	....	script supervisor

Thanks
Javier Canteli	....	the directors wish to thank
Borja Echevarria	....	the directors wish to thank
Juan Herrera	....	the directors wish to thank
Inés	....	the directors wish to thank
Luis Lázaro	....	the directors wish to thank
Pablo Motos	....	the directors wish to thank
Emilio A. Pina	....	the directors wish to thank
Ledicia Sola	....	the directors wish to thank
Alicia Torres	....	the directors wish to thank
Carmen Utrilla	....	the directors wish to thank

Production Companies

• Notro Films
• Bocaboca Producciones

Distributors

• Brunbro Entertainment Group (2008) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• A Plus Films (2007) (Turkey) (all media)
• Filmfreak Distributie (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• IFC (2008) (USA) (all media)
• Revolver Entertainment (2008) (UK) (all media)
• Shochiku Company (2008) (Japan) (all media)

Also Known As:

Fermat's Room (International: English title)
L'habitació de Fermat (Spain: Catalan title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:9

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Notro Films

Quotes:

Hilbert: This reminds me of the riddle about the shepherd who has to cross the river in a boat with a sheep, a wolf and a cabbage. You know it? Only two can go in the boat. For example, the shepherd and the sheep, or the shepherd and the cabbage. You have to work out how he can cross the river without the wolf eating the sheep or the sheep eating the cabbage.
Pascal: Why would a shepherd bring a wolf? What's more, I don't see what it has to do with this situation.
Oliva: Perhaps Professor Hilbert meant that one of us is the shepherd; another, the wolf; another, the sheep; and another, the cabbage.

Movie Connections:

References "Lost" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Te mereces una corona de estrellas (romeras)

top performers x good plot = enjoy with maths!

Let me say in advance that, even it is a general audience movie it does the best with a bit of maths on the background, but still a very good movie indeed.

The strongest point are the top performances of Lluis Homar and Federico Luppi, finest actors very skilled in theaters and movies, supported by unexpectedly good beginners, Santi, Elena & Alejo, more trained in plain roles of teen comedies and late shows than in cinema, they do quite well and finally you understand why were they chosen for this film.

The plot is atracting from the very beginning, the most of time it goes on real-time action, with a countdown that will kill many of them if several mind games are not achieved. A new shape for a known theme, yes, but it works 100%.

And now the maths class: Every character is playing a role of a great mathematic and both players and characters were selected to fit into that role: Hilbert is an old mathematic devoted to the riddles, Pascal an engineer thinking only on the commercial application of any idea, Fermat an enigmatic person showing no more that what you want to see and Galois a young genoius but not used to think on advance. The life of those people plays a little on the movie. So now you can see what a good selection of players for this roles.

The mathematical riddles are explained easily and with no so much relationship with the main plot so they are not required to be understood to follow the film, but of course is a good point if you do it.

And finally, the Fermat's Last Theorem: It is already demonstrated so don't expect any surprise on this movie. But if you want, you can take a look to the Goldbach's Conjecture, maybe it helps.