Dani Rovira (Málaga, 1980) has shown everything as an actor. After the comedy Eight Basque Surnames (2014) – the highest-grossing Spanish film in history – he became sick with multiple sclerosis in 100 meters, a film that includes the true story of Ramón Arroyo, the diagnosed man who ran an Ironman. He was the national man of steel in Superlópez and rescued migrants in the Mediterranean. What he had not done until now, and perhaps it is the only case in our country, is to face in the cinema the same illness that he suffered in real life. With his background and his back, if anyone is capable of taking on such a challenge, it is Dani Rovira.
In The Bus of Life (Ibon Comenzana) he becomes Andrés, a music teacher displaced from Madrid to the small Biscay town of Orduña, who dreams of going on stage. Having just turned 40 and having never overcome stage fright, he feels that his new life is taking him away from the dream of dedicating himself to what he teaches. Upon arriving there, on his first day of class, he faints due to a loud ringing in his ear: it is cancer.
To receive treatment, Andrés will travel to Bilbao in an old bus that transports patients in the area free of charge. Thanks to the laughter, confessions and fears shared with his traveling companions, Andrés will be able to face his fears and… perhaps fulfill his dream.
Dani co-stars in a bright and musical film – he performs a song composed by Manuela Vellés – with Susana Abaitua, the young woman who rents him an apartment in his new destination and gets behind the wheel of the bus. Like 100 meters, it is not a drama intended to provoke tears in the viewer, on the contrary: it is a fiction based on real experiences that moves people to live. To grab hold of life with your teeth and not let go. Elena Irureta, Antonio Durán ‘Morris’, Nagore Aramburu, Amancay Gaztañaga and Andrés Gertrúdix, among others, also participate in The Bus of Life. It premieres next July 5.
The script, by Ibon Cormenzana and Eduard Solà, is based on real events: “It was born when a few years ago I traveled to see some relatives. One of them told me that they had detected cancer and explained to me what his routine had been like since then. He traveled to the hospital an hour away on what they called “The Bus of Life,” a free bus shared with other patients. He told me about the friendship he established sharing that space. I thought that story deserved a movie,” explains Cormenzana.
