In his films he always wears his usual reverend attire, with his pistols hanging from his hips, ready to shoot at
Diario de Almeria
By Rubén García Felices
October 5, 2025
Andrés Macho is a film director, screenwriter and actor from Almeria. He was born in Benahadux on April 12, 1970 (55 years old), into a humble family, making his film debut late in 2018 with “Return to Bethlehem”, as director of the film. Since then, he has not stopped working on his own film projects to make a small niche for himself in the wave of independent cinema in Almeria. His best-known film is “Blessing”. “Sangre y Nácar” (2024), with which he participates in the new edition of the Almería Western Film Festival.
Question. Andrés, how do you remember your childhood and youth?
Answer. Everyone knew me and called me "Andresillo, el del Salón" (and they still call me that), because I spent my entire childhood in the Salón bar in Benahadux that belonged to my parents. I spent my childhood in that bar and in the church square that was opposite, where I shared thousands of soccer games with my friends. I remember that my first idol was Arconada, the goalkeeper of Real Sociedad. Soon I started working as an apprentice in Pepe Damián's mechanic workshop (my godfather), but one day the inspection came to do a medical examination and as soon as they said to draw my blood I ran away. Since then, I have not set foot in that workshop again. (We laugh.) When they take my blood I faint, I can't handle that. Then I went to the military and when I returned, after my father died, my brother José took over the bar, I helped him for a few years.
Q. How do you currently make a living?
A. For about 3 and a half years I have been working as a social health worker in the company Atende, a social services company, where I am lucky enough to take care of the elderly people of my town, Benahadux, who saw me grow up. Before I was a bricklayer's laborer, a job that I combined for 17 years with the care of a paraplegic person.
Q. How did your interest in cinema come about? What do you remember about your first shoots?
A. About 8 years ago I was called to play a small role with dialogue, as an actor, and as a result of that I got hooked on this world; deciding very soon to do my own projects and shoots, as a director and acting. My first directed work was called “Return to Bethlehem” (2018), a version of the birth of Jesus set in the Wild West. As for the first time I performed, it was in “Arizona 1878. A History of the Old West” (2019), by Manuel Olaya, where I played a small role, in the mines of La Partala, guarding some prisoners. One of those prisoners was Micky Molina, one of the sons of the singer Antonio Molina, who personally congratulated me by telling me that he was doing well... and that's when I got the spark.
Q. You live cinema as an actor and director. Where do you prefer to be: behind the camera or in front of it?
A. It depends on the moment. I find it difficult to answer this question. I like to bring my ideas to life as a director but, on the other hand, I love to see myself on the big screen.
Q. Is it a blessing? “Blood and Mother-of-Pearl” (2024) your most ambitious film project so far?
A. So far, yes. In fact, the film (in its shortened version) has been a finalist this year at the Almería Western Film Festival (AWFF) in Tabernas and next Saturday, October 11, at 1 p.m., it will be screened in Fort Bravo – Texas Hollywood. I mean we had to reduce the film to only 22 minutes long, turning it into a short film, which was necessary to be able to participate in this festival. It's a shame that at the AWFF you can't see it in its entirety. The film is a fusion between a western and its clichés and the real daily life of a village in Bajo Andarax in the middle of the nineteenth century. In it, gunmen arrive from the United States to Almeria in search of the foreman of some mines, a place where he takes refuge from a murky past. The movie contains a lot of action, romantic scenes and some other touch of humor. As far as the places that we can discover are concerned, we find old farmhouses from that time, the Plaza Vieja de Almería, the Cable Inglés, ... although eighty percent of the film is filmed in Benahadux, in the mines of La Partala. The part that corresponds to the history of the USA has been shot in Western Leone. The film contains performances by flamenco singers very much from our land.
Q. How long is the full version of the film?
A. It is a medium-length film of 49 minutes.
Q. Will there be a continuation of Blessing?
A. Yes, and it will be titled Blessing. Recover your soul. I'm already finishing the script, but I still have to specify several aspects of the shoot: set locations, permits, search for sponsors, etc. I am very excited about the realization of this second part, because people already know what the story of Bendición is about. They want and ask me to do another work of this character, which I play myself.
Q. Who is Blessing?
A. Blessing in the film is an Almerian who emigrates to North America, joins a gang of outlaws, and finally, repenting of his sins, becomes a priest. Then, shortly after, and for circumstances that I will not say, he kills the son of the leader of another gang, so he has no choice but to flee to his homeland, Benahadux. Bendición is a character who always wears his usual reverend attire, with his pistols hanging from his hips, ready to shoot at full speed.
Q. Who do you get together with to shoot your projects?
A. With great people and friends who love the cinema of their land. I am not going to mention them all because there are many, so I will only name the technical team, which is in charge of filming, editing, etc. Nuria Campos, Nazaret Prados and Miguel Montoya from Mírame Almería.
Q. What have you been working on lately?
A.I have shot two western short films, as you already know (counted with your participation in both): “Cursed Revenue” (2024), which tells the last two days of Pat Garrett, and which was also selected for screening at the AWFF last year; and “Death to the Bastard” (2025), another western, which deals with the fight against cancer and is currently finishing editing.
Q. What are your hobbies besides cinema?
A. I collect antiques, I love archaeology, and I'm also a fan of country music, such as artists like Alan Jackson or George Strait. Apart from this, I have another passion that no one knows about and that is the practice of survival. Spending five days lying on a mountain with minimal resources, building my own shelters, hunting...
Q. What kind of antiques are you interested in?
A. I've been collecting antiques from the nineteenth century for about 14 years, which are the same ones I use for props in my films, such as lamps, clothes, furniture, reproductions of weapons, etc. As I didn't know what to do with so many things, I did several film sets in my own farmhouse where I live. One is a Mexican kitchen, another a hunter's cabin, I also have a blacksmith's cabin, and the largest is an interior decoration (where you and I are right now) of a small cantina that is at the same time a store. All together they make a post stop. I call the set of sets Rancho Majuelo.
Q. Could you name some films that have been shot here?
A. Here, in Rancho Majuelo, several film shoots have already been done, apart from all my own (my own projects). One of these films is “Your Last Duel, Friend” (2025), by Dirk Roche, where, by the way, I am a co-star. With this German director I have also co-starred in “A Bastard, a City and the Dead” (2022). In the same way, scenes have been filmed in my ranch from “La Marcha del Diablo”, by José Enrique Martínez Moya, which is currently being filmed and where, likewise, I participate with an important role. Curiously, in all these works he is seen in the same clothing as a reverend gunslinger, as in Blessing. It seems that I have been pigeonholed with this outfit that I love.
Q. Upcoming projects.
A. In the short term, the aforementioned Blessing 2
and other film work related to my profession. The latter, an autobiography of
mine, that of a man who feels bitter for not finding a job and who suddenly
gets an opportunity to work in home help caring for a patient with cerebral
palsy. But, be careful, don't think that it will have a sad story, but on the
contrary, it will be a short film that will have a lot of humor.
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