This event is part of Forbidden Worlds Film Festival 2026. Visit www.forbiddenworldsfilmfestival.co.uk to see the full line-up as well as buy Weekend/Day Passes.

Dir: Fernando Colomo | Spain | 90 mins | Cert. 12

In 1985, Spanish cinema attempted to make history by combining both the medieval drama and fantasy/sci-fi genres with the tale of an alien spacecraft that is mistaken for a dragon by the inhabitants of a medieval Spanish town.

To guarantee international success, they cast international stars, worked on ambitious special effects, and gave the film a, at the time, record-breaking budget. The result was Star Knight (also known as The Knight of the Dragon) which has gone on to achieve cult status because of its ill-fated production that saw ego and ambition come crashing together.

The film sees Miguel Bosé (then an European pop star, now Spain’s biggest anti-vaxxer!) star as a mysterious alien who crashes on Earth and becomes enamoured with a local princess. With Harvey Keitel comically miscast (or perfectly cast!) as a self-confident medieval knight, Klaus Kinski (after Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas and Vincent Price all said no) as a learned alchemist and a budget of almost $4 million, the stage was set for a film that promised to take the Spanish film industry to new heights… but would ultimately crash and burn with both critics and audiences.

Over the years it has been reevaluated, with many highlighting its bold stylistic swings, and now thanks to our friends at CutreCon in Madrid, we are excited to screen a 4K restoration of this little-seen European fantasy adventure that clumsily (but charmingly) tries to mash together the likes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Despite being a Spanish film, we will be screening the film in English - the way director Fernando Colomo originally shot it and considers to be the best version.